Fire Emblem: Radiant Insert
by BeatTheWhirlwind
Summary: One day, Dylan, a normally normal guy gets transported to Tellius, which is not so normal, Join in on this adequately adequate Self-Insert, and hopefully enjoy it too. Self-Insert, M To be safe.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note_: Hi, I'd just like to say that this is my first piece of writing, and my first on this site. Thanks for reading this chapter. If you could review it, it would be extremely helpful to me in helping improve my writing skills, which isn't really that good in my opinion. Anyways enjoy!

_Prologue: Winds of Chance_

It was yet another rainy day, and indoors I was, with nothing to do but stare out the window. There was clearly nothing exciting about it, but it was better than doing homework, in my opinion.

"Damn, what did I do to my Ps3 to have it break?" with that said, I turned to look at my cherished, yet old friend.

It sat there, taunting my inability to play with it, while smiling back with its onyx black gleam. I got up from my desk, and turned to face my collection of videogames, and began to sort through my own personal treasure trove of awesomeness. I quickly threw my Ps3 games to my left, and began to dig through my Ps2 and Wii games, and found a couple of things I haven't seen for quite a while. "Wow, so that's where you were hiding, I thought I lost you, you little bastard!" And with that, I had stumbled upon the dagger that my dad bought me in a little shop in Canada, god I loved that dagger.

Anyways, I put it aside and found my copy of Radiant Dawn, a strategy based game which was the 10th in the fire emblem series, and one of my personal favourite games, even if I'd never beaten it. Deciding to give it another go, I got up to dust my Wii, plugged it in and began to turn it on. I plopped in the disc, and waited, hoping that at least this would sate my boredom. As the game was starting to load, all of a sudden my TV screen faded to black, and as I got up to see what had happened, my Wii ejected the disc, in anything but perfect condition.

I looked at the disc dejectedly, and just before I was about to scream out in anger and scare the shit out of my parents, I began to feel a slight pain in my head, the pain slowly increasing over time. As the pain increased, my vision began to waver, and after a minute, I fell to the floor, and my consciousness began to fade.

I opened my eyes to see that I was flying; high in the sky with what seemed to be pure white wings on my back, great majestic trees stood tall below, disappearing just as quickly as I had spotted them. The more and more this surreal experience continued, the more and more I realised that I must be dreaming, or dead for that matter.

"I died, spazzing over a video game, great." I started to think about my life, as short as it was, I didn't really find anything I missed. Other than my friends and family, nothing really seemed to get me excited, other than video games that is, but I found it hard to be able to keep up with my studies while playing, so I had eventually began to phase out of that boyish stage, so even though I had died, I didn't even feel any pain, or anything for that matter. "Maybe I've turned into a Nobody now!" I laughed to myself, thinking that such a thing would come true was quite hilarious for me, and before I could put those thoughts away, a huge tower appeared before me. I flew up the spire, and as I reached the summit, a person came into view.

She was a beautiful woman, appearing to be in her twenties, with long black hair tied into braids; she wore an orangey robe-like gown, and sported a nice looking staff too. As she turned to face me, I could see that her eyes were bright green, and she smiled at me with a serene grace not unlike those found in princesses.

"You must be the one who has been chosen, my name is Irinis, a humble servant of the Elder Gods, I believe that you must be terribly confused, so allow me to bring light to this situation." "Umm, uh yeah I would really like that, my name's Dylan, everyone just calls me Cain, uh I'm pleased to meet...you?" I was speechless, not because of her weird speech, but of the fact that my wings had disappeared, not to mention a hot girl who claims to be a servant of some gods is talking to me, a strange day it is.

" The Elder gods have chosen for you to carry out their command, being that you help save this world, for even they in all their might, are outmatched by the goddess of order. She is set to awaken four years from this day, and with her awakening lies the destruction of this world. You have been chosen for this mission and must complete it, for if not, then not even we can prevent her from destroying your world".

It took me a minute to let it all sink in, and when it did I just found it harder to think this was all real, as I pondered this, I began to question the reason I was here in the first place. Yeah, she told me that I was chosen but why me? It's not as if I'm anything special, I'm none of the sort. Maybe I am dreaming, or dead, either way this can't be real.

"Miss Irinis, why was it that I was chosen? This can't be real, I must be dreaming or something, and even if I'm not, then I must be dead! That's the only logical solution!" Just as she was before, she answered my thoughts with her lucid voice, polite even though she was dealing with an idiot like me.

"I can assure you that this is neither dream nor signs of death, everything here is as real as is possible, as for why you've been brought here, I know naught of, but heed these words young one, the Gods do not make mistakes, complete the task assigned for you, and you may yet bear witness to whatever fate has lead you here." Everything began to fade into white light, and as Irinis disappeared, I was engulfed by its glow.

A few minutes later, I found myself in the middle of a lush green forest, the sounds of wildlife all around me, but the pacing of footsteps had overwritten these noises.

I quickly hid behind a tree, and watched meekly as a band of what seemed to be travelers marched on by. I decided to follow them, as the logical thing to do would be to follow complete strangers, well maybe they`ll walk out of the forest and not deeper in, and hopefully not find me either.

As I crept sneakily along with these traveler`s, my surroundings slowly began to differ from the usual wooded forest, but started expanding into what seemed like a valley, I was no different as when I started though, I have no damn clue where I am headed, or where I even am for that matter. The troupe continued onward, not stopping for the slightest of things, and eventually stopped after what seemed like hours of walking, god my feet were killing me! The strangers seemed to have stopped at an abandoned manse, but looking closer, one would see that it was still in use, probably by this group, in particular.

I was too careless though, as I realized that I was standing RIGHT beside these people, I yelped and jumped back, causing them to draw their weapons, while the one I was beside, on the other hand, looked as if he soiled his pants, gross.

There were three of them in total, one was the man with the now stained pair of trousers, whose face was hidden behind a cloak, but exuded an aura that read "Don't fuck with me!", the other a girl around my age, with brown hair tied back in a ponytail and wearing a vest with really short shorts, she also had cat ear's and a tail, which would have gotten me screaming "Cool ears!" if I wasn't about to die, probably. The third was a busty woman whose blonde hair reached just below her neck, and wore a tunic and pants, accompanied with a big-ass sword, nice.

"Name yourself!" The woman shouted, while the girl was staring at me and the man waddling around awkwardly. Knowing no way out of this mess, I decided to tell them the truth, well at least some of it.

"M-my name is Dylan, but everyone calls me Cain. I was lost and decided to follow you guys, hoping you would lead me out of the forest, don't kill me please!"

The silent stares they were giving me were about to make me soil my own pants, but Ms. Kitty cat girl started to laugh, and looked towards the woman, "He's just a kid Marina, go easy on him! It's not like he's dangerous or anything." She looked back at me and winked, slightly helping me calm the heck down. "The name's Vreia, nice to meet you." The man waddled closer and held out his hand.

"...Halimond" was all he said, and the woman pushed him aside, shook my hand and smiled. "Marina, nice to meet you, sorry for yelling, you just surprised us, some more than others, at least." Halimond backed away, looking embarrassed, while Vreia was having trouble holding back her laughter, or trouble breathing, as the smell was horrid.

Marina, ignoring the two motioned for me to come into the manse and we did. There we sat in what appeared to be a lounge and started to chat. "So how did you end in the forest anyways?" I could tell that Marina was a straight shooter, so there was no point in beating around the bush.

"Well truthfully I just woke up and found myself in these woods, and then I followed you, hoping to find my way out." Vreia, on the other hand was playing with her hair, and looked up, for a moment, then asked "So do you live in Melior? It's not far off from here and we could take you there, but it's not really a good place to go right now..."

The term "Melior" seemed to hit me, but I put couldn't remember what it meant to me, so I pushed the thought aside. I decided to come up with the easiest story possible, in hopes that it being simple would be better than so detailed that its' stupid. " Umm, honestly I don't have a hometown, or a home for that matter, I wander from place to place, just trying to get by, If you could take me to Melior I'd a-." But before I could continue, I was cut off by Marina. "Hey hold on, if you've got nowhere to stay, why not here, for a while anyways. We honestly could use some help and you're just the guy we need!" I was starting to get more and more anxious, but I guess I couldn't just leave.

"Alright I guess if it's okay with you guys, I'd be glad too, but what is it you need help with anyways?" Vreia was about to answer the million dollar question, but Marina got up and spoke before she had the chance to. "We're going to liberate Melior, and with that Crimea from the clutches of Daein's Mad King Ashnard." As I heard that vile name roll off her tongue, I just realized where I was, and what I was supposed to do. But before I could even think about that, the only thing hitting me was "Oh my god, I'm In Tellius!" And with that, my adventure was starting to unfold, and only the Elder Gods could predict what was in store for me.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2: Preparations_

It was the early morning, or so it seemed. The birds were chirping excitedly outside, and the noticeably radiant sun was preventing me from falling back to sleep. I hadn't the strength to get up at the moment, so I lay there, thinking about what would come of these next few days.

I was recruited into the Crimean Liberation Army which was apparently, for lack of a better term, a three man group, consisting of Marina, Vreia, and Halimond, who don't really seem capable of taking down the entirety of the Daein army, well I never bothered asking them about how many people they have in the first place, so you never know. I still find my role in this story nothing but a joke.

I'm supposed to be THE saviour, THE liberator, otherwise known as Ike. Although it'd be pretty cool to lead my own party and fight the evil boss at the end. Actually, it'd be pretty fucking awesome.

Before I could start fantasizing about "Dylan The Hero", Marina barged into my room, and decidedly dragged me out of bed, not without saying "Rise and shine!" though.

"So Dylan, are you ready to get some training done yet? You aren't going to get that far in the army without learning how to fight." Smirking at me with a sly grin, she continued to drag me somewhere.

I replied "Sure, but can we get something to eat first?" laughing slightly, she stopped and poked me in the forehead, and said "Idiot, you should have told me earlier, we're already outside the manse." I couldn't help laughing myself, seeing that I was so airheaded.

"Well then, how about we get started?" Marina uttered, glancing at me. She then walked towards what looked to be wooden sticks of some sort, and tossed me one.

"I hope you know how to use it." I hope I know too. And with that, she charged at me, deciding to give a quick slash to my side, probably hoping to see me deflect it or something. Fuck that, I'm not strong enough to lift anything even remotely heavy, so I decided to jump back.

I dodged the blow, and I flailed my sword arm at her, hoping to get lucky. She chuckled at my attempt. "Not going to work kid!"

She sidestepped my assault, then grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, and threw me to the floor. I fell a couple feet away, noticing her rushing towards me; I rolled to the side, and then tripped her. I quickly got up then swung my stick at her with as much force as I could, but she blocked it.

"Ugh, not bad Dylan, but I've still got some tricks up my sleeve!" she kicked me square in the gut, and then pushed me away, taking her stance, holding her stick in her right arm, above her head pointing right at me.

I took the offense this time, and charged at her. But before I could get into her range, I stopped immediately and sidestepped, and swung at her feet, tripping her yet again.

She rolled out of the way, and swung at my sword arm three times, hitting my elbow, wrist, then upper forearm. "Shit!" I screamed out, as the pain caused me to drop my sword, and she swung horizontally at my head, hard.

I ducked luckily, and grabbed her wrist; I pulled her down and spun around her, then threw her to the floor. I looked for my stick, but I couldn't find it anywhere. "Damnit!" without it, I'd be wide open, and that's probably not good.

"Hey Dylan, looking for this?" and with that Marina was holding both sticks, in a dual wielding badass way. She charged at me, and swung consecutively. I dodged the first blow, then ducked to avoid the second swing, sidestepping the third, but before she could swing at me again I punched her in the gut, causing her to stagger.

Hey I used to box; maybe I could go with that? So I jabbed at her with my left, and then hit her in the shoulder with a hook to the right. Before I could try anything else, she started swinging her swords again, and she hit me in the shoulder.

I dodged her next swipe, and jabbed her three times with my left, and then a straight, a left hook, and finally, a short swing to the gut, but she recovered faster than I thought and hit me square in the head, she held her weapons at me in executioner fashion.

The battle was done, and the victor was Marina, not bad for my first fight I have to say, but I was exhausted, gotta work on that. Marina held out her hand and pulled me up slowly...and then punched me square in the face.

Obviously, it hurt. Marina laughed at me, probably enjoying the bright new bruise on my face, "Not bad, for a rookie, but damn, that hurt kid!"

I laughed at her, but didn't say anything else, hoping to be spared from another blow to the face, and we walked back to the manse to get a bite. Marina was eyeing me along the way, and suddenly said "Where did you learn how to fight like that Dylan?"

I didn't really understood what she meant, and responded with "I don't think I've ever fought with swords before, I can't really remember anything else Marina."

Rule number one in self inserts, never let down your guard, and I have to say, I'm not doing that bad, but otherwise, I lied. "Well, um, I've never fought before, was I really that good?" She looked back at me, and then winked, smiling deviously, with a somehow sweet, yet condescending smirk.

"There's room for improvement, and your fist fighting is good actually, you should talk to Vreia, she could learn a thing or two from you." We entered the manse, and she stopped and said "I'll see you around kid; I've got some business to attend to." And with that, she disappeared down a corridor, so I headed for the kitchen.

As I walked down countless hallways, I eventually stumbled upon the kitchen; it wasn't that different from a modern kitchen, except maybe no appliances. The sink lacked a tap, for obvious reasons, and barrels and sacks of food lay in the corner of the room, with one table in the center, and a fireplace and oven too.

As I skimmed the room, I noticed that a big, burly fellow was preparing some meat, and not that bad either.

It was Halimond. He looked quite different than I had initially thought he looked, as I could barely see his face under his cloak, which he was without at the moment.

He was tall, had rough brown hair slicked back into a ponytail, and sported a nice looking beard too. He seemed pretty young, but not young per se, just not old. He also sported a big nasty scar on his left cheek, asking the question of where it came from.

He turned around, and noticed me looking at him, and said "Hey kid, what's the matter?" "Oh uh, I was looking for something to eat, so I came here." I replied. He walked over to a bag on the table, and picked up a bag, "Here" he said, and tossed me the bag.

I peered inside, and it was a bag of cookies. "That's...all the food we have?" Halimond just smirked at me and said "Just hold on for a bit, I'm preparing the meal, come back in an hour."

He turned back towards his roasting meat, but before I could walk out of the room, he said "Hey Cain, you any good at cooking?"

I couldn't help but chuckle, that's the first time someone finally called me that, I hoped that coming to Tellius would allow me to opt for a name change, guess I shouldn't have told anyone my name in the first place, but Cain on the other hand, had a nice ring to it.

"I'm not that bad. I could help you out sometime." He didn't say anything else, so I left, cookies in hand, wandering around aimlessly. The cookies were actually pretty good, it was sweet, and the cit crumbled in your mouth. I wonder who made them.

I got bored of wandering around, so I headed out front, and sat down on the front stairs, eating away at the cookies. "Pretty good huh? I made those you know."

"Whoa!" Jumping up, I turned around to see who said that, and a sly cat-girl was hopping around behind me. "Scared ya, didn't I Lenny? Oh great, I hated that nickname. Back at home, all my friends used to call me that, I didn't like it though, but that didn't stop them, goodbye Cain, welcome back Lenny.

Anyways I responded to her question. "Y-yeah kinda. These cookies are really good Vreia, where'd you learn how to cook?"

She walked up beside me, and sat down, playing with her hair, and said "An old friend actually, well most of your Beorc recipes anyway. My mom taught me how to burn stuff, but I didn't like the simple stuff, so I asked him how to cook, and tada, cookies!" She grabbed one out of the bag, and started nibbling on it with a passion, it was cute.

We finished the bag, and threw it aside, I got up, when I had to wonder, what kind of Laguz is she anyways? "Hey, Vreia, what kind of laguz are you anyway?" she laughed and dusted some dust off her pants, and said "A Tiger Laguz, you know the big buff ones."

I had to struggle to hold in my laughter, because the fact that scrawny Vreia, was a buff tiger was hard to grasp. For her though, it wasn't hard to grasp that I was mocking her silently.

"H-hey, don't tease me Lenny, you wanna fight or something?" I waved my arms in desperation; honestly I think I'm done with the fighting. "Um no, maybe next time, or never actually." I laughed a bit, and she pouted.

"How are you gonna improve with that attitude? I don't approve at all!" She shouted out, pretty loudly too actually, and some birds that were nesting nearby flew away.

I reconsidered, because training might help my chances in surviving in this world, and when I get to party with THE party, maybe pick up a girlfriend or something, heh.

So I prepared myself, and we walked towards the spot where I sparred with Marina, to see that she was there, training herself. She looked over at us, sweat dripping from her chin, and waved at us. "Vreia, Dylan, what's going on? Training some more?"

Vreia, being her usual self, was jumping about. "Yep! I'm gonna sock this greenhorn too!" Marina eyed her approvingly, probably still mad at me for smacking her about, and said "Alright then, get to it!" Just like that, I was in yet another sparring match, although this time, I think I've got it, well, until I . Vreia started glowing, and a bright light blocked out what was going on with her, but it disappeared just as quickly as it appeared, and what was left was a brownish tiger."

Oh great." I thought out loud. She was somewhat large in appearance, with some tattoos on her sides, and her mane tied in braids, her fangs were large and razor sharp, as were her claws, this fight was clearly one-sided. Well, I decided to make the first move, so I charged at her, and attempted a kick, but it missed, and she rammed me aside. I was flung back a bit, but I didn't really take any damage. Marina, who was watching the fight, scoffed at me.

"You gotta do better than that kid." She said, "Fight's aren't always about overwhelming your opponent, try something out." This time though, Vreia charged at me. I guess Marina's advice doesn't apply to her, as she's a huge fucking tiger. She swiped a paw at me, but I leaped to the side and dodged it, and kicked her side, it didn't look like it did anything, and she jumped at me. She knocks me to the ground, and attempts to either give me a big, loving hug, or flatten me like a pancake. Either way, I wasn't about to just lie about, I kicked her off me, taking all of my leg power to do so, but she just jumped at me again. Damn, wouldn't want her as an enemy, oh wait, she is one. Woops.

I rolled out of the way, and rammed into her, causing her to fall. She grunted, in her manly tiger voice, and attempted to get up, I pounced on her though, and held her down for a submission, woopee. She reverted back to human form, and threw a tantrum, albeit, looking very cute doing so. "Arrrrgh! I so woulda won that if it was a real fight!"

I smirked, and patted her on the head "Maybe next time, rookie." She didn't take that comment well, and pushed me away, then began walking away. "Next time Lenny, I'm gonna pummel you!" She walked towards a tree stump, and began to sulk in her woodland corner, leaving me standing here. Marina came up to me, and applauded my performance.

"Well done Dylan." I felt my cheeks flush red from embarrassment; I've won my first fight after all, in a matter of minutes too, although I hope she doesn't take it the wrong way.

I smirked and said. "Thanks, although I think I would've lost if it were a real fight." She patted me on the back, and said "Don't worry kid, we'll get you some equipment, a soldier is nothing without his weapon right?" She laughed.

"We've got an assignment tomorrow, so get some grub, and get some sleep." Wait, "What?" I uttered, but by then, she was already walking away, leaving me, my empty stomach, and the kitty cat alone. I turned to look at her.

"Hey, you alright?" She turned towards me, and stuck out her tongue, but she didn't seem as worked up as before, in my eyes at least. "Hmph! I'm fine, although I'm amazed at how fast you are, and you got a good punch for a baby.

" I laughed at the irony, but didn't continue, in fear of incurring her wrath yet again, so I went with saying: "You wanna get something to eat?"

"Food! Alright, let's go! She said, her face lit up at the mention of food, and she grabbed my arm and began to drag me back to the manse, hopefully Halimond's as good as he says he is, because I don't think my body can handle any more punishment.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3: Beginner's Prelude_

"Man, that was some great food Halimond!" I say, the meal from yesterday left me with astonished at how amazingly godly his food tasted, now I CAN'T wait to meet Oscar.

He laughed, stroking his beard while exuding his masterful chef's aura. "Well, If you liked it that much kid, I can teach you how to cook, I asked you yesterday I believe."

I only nod, as I'm still somewhat exhausted from my training from yesterday, it didn't help that I didn't get any sleep, thinking about today's assignment. "By the way, have you heard anything about the situation at Melior Halimond?" I say.

If I recall, I believe that's when Renny get's all snatched up and turns into Bertram. Now that I think about it, it doesn't make sense why I'm here, well now at least, if I know more about Radiant Dawn then Paths, heck I don't even own it.

Halimond looks as if he's gonna say something, but I can't hear him, I start looking around, everything looked normal around the kitchen, except it looked a little cleaner today, but when I take a closer look, it looks like Halimond is just, well, standing there with his mouth wide open, stroking his beard in solitary stride.

_"Do not fret Dylan, you're not going insane." _"Woah!" I say, stepping back, knocking over a chair by mistake. "Who are you?" I utter out loud, although the sounds are coming from my head, I can assume something magical is doing this, like a mage or something.

_"It is I, Irinis young one, I am the messenger of the gods, and your guardian, it is my duty to protect and enlighten you when need be, like now for instance."_

"_You're ability to read the lines of the future may only prove plausible in three years time, but there are many things that may or may not happen, depending on your involvement now. In time you shall see these things to come, and learn why they are happening too._

I scratch my head in wonder, as this information is kinda useless, doing nothing to help protect or enlighten me, but seeing as how this is a cliché form of communicating to the main character, she can probably read my-"_mind._

" _Glad I could enlighten you young one." _She chuckles, at least she has a sense of humour, at first I thought she was somewhat robotic, well, first impressions are indeed impressions. "Will I ever be able to get back home Irinis? What happened to me back on Earth?"No response comes for a while, but it indeed comes.

"_I'm sorry Dylan, that I do not know, but I can at least say that there may be a chance, you are a lucky child, and with luck brings chance."_ Oh lucky me. "But if I'm so lucky, and the chosen representative of the Elder Gods, do I well...um, get any special powers or something? Heh, always go with the power question, they'll give it to you, since a regular fighter isn't special at all, and if you're not special, then you're hardly chosen material.

I can hear her groan/laugh as she hears my awkward question, most likely facepalming herself atop her tall, tall tower_. " Yes Dylan, you have powers yet unawakened, a gift from each of the Gods, although you'll need to figure the rest out on your own, I can however, give you this." _And then the CG cutscene kicks in, well no, since I'm obviously lying, but there is a faint light in front of me, and a messenger bag variant appears.

I grab it before it falls, and I place it on the countertop, anxious to look at the contents lying within. What I pull out from the bag though, was shocking, for lack of a better term. There were a couple of oddball items inside, and I began to pull them out one by one.

My cellphone, coolio, I wonder if it works? _"Obviously you shall be unable to contact anyone, but I thought it practical to use, it has melodies imprinted in it no? Along with many other functions I believe, and a necessary charging item too._I then pull out earlier said charging item, being hand powered, and had a miniature light too.

The next item I pull out is a vest, adorned with many designs, not half bad either, and this cool gold eagle-like emblem on the back, the overall grayish vest felt somehow weird, as if it some enchantment or something, or that could be me, as I'm hardly well suited for pointing out enchantments, although the embroidered gems and ancient look clearly proved it so.

"_That vest is a gift from the God Horus of Protection, it's develops alongside it's owner, take care not to lose it, for it will be a great asset. _The next item I pulled out of the bag were two fingerless gloves, each attached to a somewhat large and mystifying bangle, with an unknown language written around its surface, the bangles were golden, while the gloves black, adorned with a different symbol on the back, being of a silverish dragon.

"_This, a gift from the God Tyr of Combat, wield it bravely, cowardice will be your downfall while wielding these, but justice will allow it to shine".___I pulled out the next one, it bring a ring adorned with a purple gemstone, designed to be in the shape of a wolf.

"_From the Goddess Amaterasu of the Sun, shining through the darkness with its radiant light"_ And there's one last item in the bag, I snatch out what seems to be a necklace, a light teal green stone topped with wings was its centerpiece_._

"_Ah, my gift. I shall not tell you of its hidden power, but only that each gift reflects that god's personal strength, and mine is no different. Make good use of it."_ And that ended my early birthday party, but instead of getting presents from people, I get gifts from gods, not a bad trade if I do say so myself.

"Well, thanks, Irinis, I hope I can live up your expectations, I won't let you down!" She said nothing in return though, and just as I finished putting everything back in the bag, time started again. Maybe she was the Goddess of Time? Well, Halimond finished his sentence that partook in that conversation I had with him, the subject of which slipping my mind, he looked at my bag and asked "Did you always have that bag Cain?"

I guess it's the right time to lie, I aint that bad either. "Umm, yes?" okay maybe I couldn't cover for a mysteriously appearing bag properly, but he seemed to buy it either way. "Well...alright, you best be getting prepared for the assignment, we'll be heading out in an hour or so, after you're done preparing, meet up with us in the study."

I replied with "Yes Sir!" and was on my merry way out of the kitchen. I guess I should meet up with Marina at the training area, a.k.a rumble arena, wins: one, losses: one, a decent 1.0 kdr. I arrived there to see Marina looking at some wild flowers, she seemed distracted by the flora, I didn't take her for a flower girl, I found it cute though, and I find a lot of things cute, now that I think about it.

"Boo!" I said, in hopes of getting to hear her scream, she did though, but I barely heard it over the elbow in my face. "D-Dylan, don't do that again!" She uttered, after noticing she sucker punched me, she said "Sorry, well never mind. It's your fault anyway." I laughed, and said "Okay okay, sorry, I won't do it again...maybe."

She ignored that comment and tossed me a sack, alright; it's like Christmas all over again! "Here's your equipment kid, get prepared, I'll fill you in later." I nodded, and then made my way back to the manse, but before I got there... "Hey! Lenny boy, over heeeere!"

I looked towards the manse, and sitting at the entrance was Vreia, waving at me with weapons at her side. "Yo Vreia, what's with the pointy things?" She beamed at me, and said " It's time to pick and choose your first wittle baby, so which one will it be Lenny?" I look through her pile, and gazed at each weapon.

Steel Axe, no way. Steel Greatlance restricts my movement. Magic tomes? Nope, maybe next time...I skipped staves obviously. Short bow, hmmm. Leaving a slim sword, and iron knives. I'll take those. She hefts them up, and tosses them to me, good thing they're in sheathes. "Alright Claire and Mr. Pointies, get along with Lenny now!"

Weird, but cute, but mostly weird I think as I take my "wittle babies", I thank her, and head to my room to prepare for this assignment. I check out what Marina brought me, and it's a new outfit, more suited to battle, or so it seemed. There was a long sleeved blue tunic, along with tan pants, and leather boots, topping it off with a belt, and a weird cape-like thing hanging from the side of it, but cool nonetheless.

Overall, way better than my old outfit, being a normal t-shirt and beige pants, totally not a giveaway, but they totally didn't care. I put on the tunic and pants, along with the belt, then attached my sword sheath horizontally on the back of my belt, the daggers being tied onto leg, right below my knees. I then opened the messenger bag and pooled out the items within. I placed the cell phone in my pocket, safer there than in my bag, and then put the vest on, then the gloves, and the ring, and finally the necklace.

A weird feeling washed over me, but just as quickly as it arrived, it disappeared, and I took no notice of it. I put on my boots, and place my sandals under my bed, and with a sense of excitement, head for the study.

As I arrived, I noticed that Marina was talking with the others, but a person unknown to me was there too, equipped with a bow, and wearing a white trench coat and spauders, while sporting a mess of blonde hair tied back.

"Ahh Dylan, there you are. You don't look half bad...did I give you that vest?" The others scanned my appearance, then looked at me expectantly for an answer. "Yeah, you did, nice isn't it?" Yep Dylan, distract them with questions, the truth comes later, way later. She nods, and pulls the blondey over.

"This is my brother, Mirian. He'll be assisting you on this mission." He came up to me and offered a hand, and a smirk, and said "Nice to meet ya Cain, let's be friends." I shook his hand and replied "Yeah." Leaving him smiling. Vreia and Halimond came to join the conversation and Marina began to speak.

"Alright, now let me explain this mission of ours, for those still left unaware." She winked at me, causing me to blush, then continues with her speech. "Mirian here came back from a recent trip from the Daein capital, Nevassa, overhearing rumours of an attack on Crimea, these were just rumours however, but as baseless as they were, it still was troubling. "

This time, Mirian began to speak. "I planned to head back to Crimea as fast as I could, and I left the next day, only to find that the army was already planning to attack, what a surprise that was!" A big surprise I believe.

"I went to the capital and explained the situation, but they took naught of it, so I went and spread it about the citizens. They believed it for sure, Crimea and Daein never got along, but they opted to ignore it, hoping to leave it to the nobles, and that left a defenceless Melior."

Marina paced about, and began yet again. "We later reconfirmed of the attack, and found out even more. Daein was hiring bandits to ravage the lands, to distract the royal knights, and walk right in." Never heard this anywhere, bad fire emblem wiki. Well it IS just a game.

"We've also reports that there is a traitor in the Crimean court, and that they're plan is already in motion, so we will act now." Oh shit! They didn't even attack YET? I'm sure she was humming a different tune a couple of days ago, but it got my attention alright. Marina stopped at a desk, and unravelled a map, ushering us over.

"Here's our plan of attack, Halimond, I want you to ride eastwards until you find an old fort. There lies a mercenary group, ask for their help, the leader is an old friend of mine." Woah, what! That's so cool, meeting up with the GREIL MERCENARIES already! Although something seems a bit different, I'm sure it will work out though.

She turned at looked at me. "Dylan, Vreia, Mirian. I want you to head to the towns near Castle Delbray, that is where most reports of bandit activity are spotted, get some info, and if you encounter any of the royal knights, do try and convince them. I've got another manner to take care of, do your best!"

"Yes Ma'am!" the three of utter in synchronization and Marina heads out the door, with Halimond leaving right after. "Don't get your head's knocked off kids." And with that he was gone too. "Well, let's get moving already!"

I could see Vreia's already impatient. "I agree let's go" replies Mirian. "Alright" I respond, and now, the first real fight begins, and hopefully doesn't end either.


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4: Beginner's Battle_

"We're almost there, be prepared guys."

Well, as you can see, Mirian is actually serious on the job, quite the counterpart to his wild appearance.

After leaving the manse, we finally arrived at our destination a small town in Crimea named Ohma, and now we've gotta kick some bandit ass, all for the sake of Crimea.

Our group was actually pretty balanced out, seeing that Mirian fought with a bow, and Vreia surprisingly, wielding a Beorc Axe, unusual for those of her race, who by the way, for those who don't know, can morph into animals too.

As for me, I'm probably the hit and run specialist, ducking and weaving between attacks, so there we had it the triple threat. We had just got here, and there's already a heavy bandit presence here, as they're literally destroying the town at this moment.

"Hey, Lenny what do we do now?" Vreia asks curiously; don't know why she's asking me, whatever works I guess.

"Mirian could you watch our backs, and keep a distance from us, and be prepared to shoot"

He smirked at me and then did a mock salute, proceeding to say "Yes Captain!" Not as serious as I hoped...

"Vreia, you're with me, I'll take point. Oh, and don't shift unless you have too." She nods and we head into the town, and just like that, run into two bandits.

They noticed us, and brought out their weapons, the burly sword wielder glared at me, and said "Who da hell are ya kids? Some kinda mercs?" The axe wielder laughed, and began to taunt us

"We can handle kids like these, no need to inform Zanga." And then they charged at us.

Mirian was quick to pull out his Short bow and shot the myrmidon in the arm, causing him to stagger, the axe wielder was running towards the blondey, but Vreia covered for him.

"Hah, what's a sub-human doing out here?" he utters, this causing Vreia to get royally pissed. "You're gonna regret that you shit!"

Pulling out her Steel axe, she swung down hard, the bandit unable to react and that, decapitated him in one blow. The sword wielder panicked, and yelled out.

"Z-Zanga! We're under attack!" But that was all he said, as I stabbed him right in the gut with my slim sword, apparently named "Claire"... He fell to the floor, and blood gushed from the wound, as well as his mouth, I shake the blood off my sword, and look away, I didn't know him, and I don't care, keep thinking that for the rest to come.

Mirian runs up to me, alongside with Vreia, with a panicked look in his eyes. "Tons of them are coming now Cain! What do we do?"

I think. We're still at the entrance, and it's pretty narrow, a couple of buildings on both sides of the ride prove that. They haven't arrived yet, so I think I've got something.

"You two stay here, Vreia protect Mirian, and you get ready to shoot, if things get bad run out of town. I'll cut around this building and cut them off, wait for my signal."

They nod in agreement, and I see them edge closer to the outskirts of town. I run past what looks like a house, and hide behind a wall, peeking out to see, five bandits sprinting towards the entrance. One of them heads towards my direction, probably thinking the same thing as me.

As soon as his friends are gone I ready my dagger, I jump out, and stab him in the neck, blood spurted onto my face, which I quickly wiped off, eww.

I put him down and well..rob him, taking a vulnerary, which for some reason none of us have, and his iron axe, and exit in his direction.

"Stop, we don't wanna fight, you're men just attacked us!" Mirian shouts, the bandit group mumbles something, but I can't hear a thing.

I move closer, and see that there are two myrmidons,a bandit, and thief, and a grizzled fighter, wearing a fur vest and greaves, sporting spiky red hair, most likely Zanga. "Heh, you think I'm gonna let you go after you attacked my men?"

He says,slightly amused, Vreia moves up and screamed "They attacked us first!" He laughs and hefts his axe, seeming to enjoy this.

"I don't give a shit, I'll be killing you guys now, except for you kitty, you'll fetch a good price on the market. I see her anger at this, but now, I make my move, hefting my own axe, I throw it Assassin's Creed style, and headshot a bandit, I then toss my dagger and it hits the thief right in his eye, ouch.

Mirian and Vreia see this as their cue, and begin their assault, with Vreia overpowering a myrmidon in yet another oneshot, and Mirian shoots the other point blank, leaving Zanga the only one left.

He looks at me shocked, yet smiles again, very creepy. "Not bad, but you'll regret messing with Zanga!" He charges at me,and I instinctive;y dodge his wide swing, Mirian then pegs him in the arm, but he ignores it, "Damnit!"

he shouts, and knocks me aside, and ran down the alleyway. Vreia meant to chase him, but I stopped her, and we begin moving closer into town. "Nice job Lenny! Just keep it up though, wouldn't want any dead weight!"

she nudges me and winks, causing me to blush, hey, it's not my fault that I'm bumping into pretty girls recently. I pick up my dagger off the thief as we're moving up, and well, loot him too, finding a herb, and an iron knife, I take both, and then take off his cloak, giving it to Vreia. "Wear it, we don't want the villagers to attack us too."

She doesn't say anything, and puts it on, Mirian catches up after grabbing his arrows, and he move towards the square. As I expected, the villagers were all being held hostage there, either to provoke Crimea or keep them at bay, we're not letting that happen though.

I look at Mirian, he nods and then climbs up onto a roof nearby, while Vreia inches forward silently, and I take a different path, leading to the square's side entrance, there were three guards there, an archer, a lance knight, and a bandit.

It looks as if I'm taking out the archer. As I make it past a couple buildings, I climb up and hang from the roof, where the archer is, and wait until he walks by me, he does, and I pull him down, and stomp on his face, a sickeningly loud sound is made.

I then hear people shouting, and I hear Vreia shout. I run to the square to see the guard's dead, the bandit shot in the chest while the Knight's helmet rended, although Vreia is injured.

"What happened?" she press a hand to her hip, and says "Damn guy nails me with a javelin, only nicked me though." I look at the wound, it's pretty deep. Mirian walks up, and says "I beg to differ, it looked like to hurt, a lot."

I bring out the herb, and then give it to her, she rubs it on the wound, and squeezes some moisture onto it, and the wound starts to close up, interesting. "Thanks." She says, but she seems a little off, probably because of the laguz comments and her injury.

"Chin up, we're not done yet." She smiles, and says "Alright..._Captain!_" I snort, and Mirian starts laughing loudly. The villagers seem to notice that everything's fine, and one of them comes up to talk to us, a big jovial fellow I might add.

"Thanks or saving us out there! Man you folks know how to rumble, I take it you're mercenaries?" No one else talks, so I guess it's me then. "Yeah, We heard the area here's in a bit o trouble, and we came to help, there's also a rumour Daein's attacking, so we want to see it firsthand." The man looks at me shocked, no doubt since it's probably the first time he's heard of it.

"D-Daein's attacking! I-I got to tell the Knights about this, thanks for helping us!" and with that he runs off, leaving another person wanting to talk to me, this time it's a pretty girl, with tealish coloured hair, and an older lady, probably her mother, who comes to speak with me.

"I'd like to thank y'all for helping us young man, that was brave of you kids. This is from the villagers." She motions to the girl and she brings forth a little bag, and speaks.

"It's not much but I'm guessing ya'll be dar-needing it since your mercenaries after all. She blushes, probably because of her accent, oh wait! If this is Ohma, then this girl is Nephenee, for sure, that must mean the other man must be Brom, cool! She hands the bag to me and shies away, I look inside, and see a bunch of gold pieces, I toss it to Mirian. "Count." I say, and he groans, then does. I look back to Nephenee, and smile, causing her to blush. "What's your name beautiful?"

Her face reddens even more, and Mirian snorts, while Vreia makes a whistling sound, it's a lot easier for me to talk to girls here, I find. Society back home preventing myself from speaking out, mostly because of being a nerd with no self-confidence

"Nephenee...Do you really think I'm pretty?" I laugh and pat her on the head. "Of course! The name's Cain, you guys should contact the capital somehow, I don't know if that man can get there safely alone." She nods, her face still red, and says "Alright, I-I'll try and help, thank you for everything!"

Aww, she's so cute! Well, we wave them off and the three of us get to talking about our next course of action.

"Now what? We can't be sitting around flirting all day!" Vreia says, glaring at me. The glare wasn't needed to identify who it was meant for.

Mirian smirks, and pats me on the back. "Your first assignment and you're doing better than me already! No wonder you're the boss! One thousand five hundred, by the way." He laughs.

"Haha, funny. I think we should notify Marina, and maybe warn Castle Delbray and Fort Pinell about the attack."

And with that I was off alone to Fort Pinell and Castle Delbray, after which I meet up with Vreia, Mirian, and Halimond and the mercenaries at Teytan, a small town to the south of Melior, and then wait for Marina at Melior after clearing up the other two towns, but for now I paid for a horse, and rode to Pinell, I think I'll name this black beast Godot, cause he's a speedy little demon, and he's as dark as that man's cup o joe.

After a couple minutes, I arrive at Pinell, and see a bunch of Crimean knights lofting about, the one at the entrance notices me.

"Halt! You there, state your business." I dismount my horse, and usher it to the stable, and say to the soldier "Just a merc, I came here to warn you about some news I heard from some bandits I've slain, who's your commanding officer?"

The soldier motion's me in, and I follow his lead, and eventually, stumble across their general. "Sir, I have someone who wishes to speak to you, a mercenary bringing news." The general, who is somewhat aged, turns to the soldier. "Good, you are dismissed."

The soldier leaves, leaving me with the General, he looks me over, and says "Quite young for a merc, but that's not important.

"What's this you wanna tell me? The names Tagio, anyhow." I cough, for dramatic effect, and began my spiel: "Cain. A job I had in Ohma had me kill terrorizing bandits, and they said something very interesting, thought I might want to share it. Basically he told me Daien hired bandits to distract you knights, while they march in with their armies. Yes, it s an attack against Crimea, and it's happening today."

"What in Ashera's name! Are you sure about this kid?"

I reply. "Definitely, even if it's not today, there will be an attack. I plan to head to Delbray and warn those there too."

He nods, but then shakes his head. "You can't, the Princ-. "

He stops, trying to figure out how to fix his mistakes, too bad I already know what you're talking about. "Prin? As in Prince...or Princess?" He says nothing, but then replies with "I don't know what you're talking about." I smirk at him, time to toy with this guy.

"I already know about the Princess, no use trying to hide it from me, I'm no ordinary merc." He recoils in shock, but recovers, and says "You know...about Ellincia?" Bingo.

"Nope, but, thanks to you, now I do, well I've done what I've done here, so I guess I'll meet this princess now."

He tries to stop me but I'm too fast, and run outta sight. "S-Stop!" he shouts, gaining the attention of some soldiers, but I'm already out of the fortress, I get on Godot, and ride for Castle Delbray.

_Well...Things are getting interesting, don't you agree Irinis? _I receive no answer though, probably she didn't even know of the many changes taking place. I wonder, is this still Path of Radiance, or something completely different? Well, If Daein is any bit like those bandits, It's gonna be a breeze.


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5: The Hands of Fate._

I was making my way down a dirt path, steadily growing closer to Castle Delbray, at the moment, I'm to warn them of the Daein invasion, while the others are meeting up, and fending off the bandits.

If only I had a Pegasus... this would be way faster, Although Godot here is cool too. A couple minutes pass, and I can begin to make out the castle, hopefully nothing's happened yet.

I usher Godot ahead, and he breaks into a light gallop, closing in on the castle. "Halt! What business do you have here?" A soldier says, I get off Godot, and move towards the soldier. "I need to speak to the Princess." And with that, the expression on his face becomes a clueless one. "There's no princess here sir, but there is a noble and her entourage inside."

"That is who I'm looking for." I say, looks like not a lot of people know of Elincia, doesn't matter either way, since they will soon enough.

"Alright, follow me." The soldier says, and he leads me around the castle, man it's huge! I can't wait to see Melior, well after it's repaired of course.

We arrive at a room on the second floor, and the soldier knocks on the door. The door opened up, and inside was Geoffrey, the seriously serious Paladin, The soldier immediately salutes him. "Sir! A visitor for you!"

He nods at the soldier. "Good, Dismissed." The soldier leaves, and Geoffrey looks at me questioningly, and says "Who are you?" I reply with "A simple merc, let's speak more inside though, wouldn't want to cause a commotion."

He looks as if he suspects me of something, but nods and ushers me in. The room looks to be a study of sorts, filled with an abundance of books and whatnot. Sitting at a table near the back was a beautiful blue haired woman, and a girl with green hair and an elegant demeanor, Lucia and Elincia. Geoffrey looks at me then ushers me to a different table, then we both sit down.

By now, Elincia and Lucia are staring at us, I smile back at them. Geoffrey coughs, gaining my attention, and then speaks. "What's this news you speak of...um?" "Cain." I reply. "And mine Geoffrey." I wipe some dirt of my shirt, and begin to tell him of the attack.

"Basically, Daein is invading today, with aims of crushing Crimea while they are distracted by numerous bandit attacks, which they've hired." His face becomes of total shock, and he stands up, Lucia and Elincia overhear this, and walk over to me. Lucia looks to me, and says "Are you sure about this?" I nod my head, and get up, and pace around the room.

"Dead serious. If you don't prepare, then you'll be left unawares, and unprotected I'm afraid, I already informed General Tagio of Pinell too, and I plan to help prevent this invasion myself." Elincia looks perplexed by this, but Geoffrey still looks suspiciously at me.

"How can we be sure to trust you?" he says, glaring at me. I smirk at him, and then turn to Elincia. "Why else would I even be here, If I could have told the King himself? It's to warn his daughter of course."

All of them look at me with shocked expressions; Elincia's more perplexed than the former though. "E-Excuse me my lord, but where did you learn of me?" I smile at her. "I know a couple of people who can't handle a drink, and Tagio himself slipped up you see."

Geoffrey gets up and attempts to grab me, but I grab his arm in return, and push him away. "Now what were you doing there kid? I'm only here to help, so get ready, I'll escort you to Melior, and these soldiers should be informed and prepare for the defence here. Get moving."

As I say this, Geoffrey glares at me, the walks out of the room, I then hear him shout out to the soldiers. Lucia looks at me curiously, and holds out her hand, I return it.

"Name's Cain, mercenary. Get ready, we can't afford to wait." "Lucia. You're an interesting one, you know that? Coming here out of nowhere, knowing of the princess, and bossing around my brother like that."

I chuckle at her, and I cross my hands, then wink at her, "Well, I'm not expecting any payment of course, but if all goes well, I wouldn't mind spending some time with a pretty girl like you."

She blushes and turns away, causing me to laugh even more, and eliciting a chuckle from Elincia too. "Well, my lord, my name is Elincia, princess of Crimea; I assume you know the rest. You look quite young to be a mercenary. I'll prepare myself shortly, but...my father, has he knowledge of this?"

I pat her head, and smirk at her. "Don't worry princess, He'll be fine, he's been warned." I hope Brom warns him, if not, I wonder how Elincia would take her father's death. Well, no use standing about, I look at the two, both red in face, and I walk out.

"Meet me at the gates when you're ready." I wait at the gateway, receiving weird glances from the soldiers every once in a while. As I wait, I try contacting Irinis. "Hey, Irinis. I'm wondering if you can give me a hint on how to activate these gifts?"

After a brief silence, her voice echoes into my head. "_Well, if it's necessary, then fine. It concerns the gift from Tyr. As you know, magical energy is apparent in this world, found in every living thing on Tellius. Even you, although not from here, have your own wells of magic inside you. The gloves require the least magical power, so it should be alright for you to use it, just clear your mind, and tense your arms, focus your magical energy towards your hands."_ Not too hard, I think.

"Well thanks Irinis." I say, her presence leaving my mind already, but as I snap back to reality, and arrow flies right past me, killing a soldier.

"What!" I say, I turn, and see Zanga, and a bunch of Daein soldiers alongside him, moving towards me. He recognizes me, and snarls.

"You...No matter, you're not who I'm after, it's the princess I want."

I obviously, shake my head and say "Nice try, but just asking isn't going to do anything. Leave now before you get the tar beaten out of you, you're outnumbered."

"Hah!" He says, laughing at me, "I think it's the other way around." with that, even MORE soldiers come into view, coming from the direction of Daien, shit! This isn't good.

I ready my dagger and knife, and prepare to get rid of these guys before the army comes, I don't think I can handle this by myself, but twelve versus one is better than the three hundred or so looming over there.

I charge at Zanga, but he dodges to the left, but bumps into a soldier, causing him to fall. I slit the throat of the soldier standing behind Zanga, then stab the one on the floor. I pick up his lance, and block an attack from a myrmidon just in time. I kick him away, then chuck the lance at him, going right threw his stomached, but an arrow hits me in the arm.

"Fuck!" I scream out, and I jump back, and pull it out. "Arrgh!" I scream in pain as the arrow comes out, but I take out a vulnerary and quickly rub some onto my wound, an arrow flies over me, and a fighter is rushing at me.

I throw my dagger at him before he reaches me, he ducks it and swings at me, I duck to the left, and then stab him in the face with my knife. I grab his axe, and deflect a blow from Zanga, but the force was enough to down me.

Two soldiers come up to try and finish me off, but I roll to the side, and kick away a charging myrmidon. I then exchange some blows with him, only for another arrow to hit me, this time grazing my face, fucking scary as hell.

I flinch, and the myrmidon swings at me, I barely deflect it, but I recover faster than him and grab him by the collar, holding him hostage. The two soldiers back away from me, unwilling to attack an ally, but Zanga, smirks, and scoffs at me.

"You think that's going to stop me kid?" and he prepares to charge me. "Damnit!" I curse, and I slit the guy's throat, and toss him at Zanga, he dodged it, and swung at me hard, I dodge it, but bump into a solder and he swings his spear at me, hitting my arm, causing me to drop my dagger. Damnit! Where the hell are the Crimean soldiers!

I look back at the entrance, only to see nothing, I turn to the incoming Daein army, and see the Crimean army attacking them, with Geoffrey leading them, impaling enemies on his spear.

"Cain!" I hear someone shout, I turn to see it's Lucia, with sword in hand, and Elincia, holding a staff. Zanga see's this, and raises his arm to Elincia.

"What are you waiting for? Go get her now!" The remaining four soldiers moved in on them, but I pull out my sword, and stab one in the back, Lucia dodges a thrust, and elegantly finishes off the other soldier with two strikes to the chest, the only hostiles left now were Zanga, and the two archers, Elincia comes up to heal me, and Lucia starts fighting with Zanga, but the archers were proving to be pesky bastards.

"Thanks!" I say to Elincia, and I run up to handle the archers. I get grazed by another arrow, nicking me in the arm, but I'm close enough to attack and slash at his chest, downing him.

I dodge another arrow, and look to the last archer; I sprint at him before he can knock an arrow, and decapitate him. Lucia was starting to have trouble against Zanga, she had nicked him a couple times, but she was tiring from dodging every single blow, I charge at him, and swipe at him, causing blood to spew from his back.

"Guah!" he say's and falls to the floor, he looks at me, hate in his eyes, and barks at me "You'll...regret making an enemy out of Daein, maggot..." He stays on the floor, unable to move, and Lucia and Elincia come up to me.

"Are you hurt my lord?" she says, her face a little pale. "Yeah I'm fine, let's get out of here; we'll meet up with my guys." Lucia nods, panting from the fight "Alright...you, you're pretty good, I can trust you to watch the princess."

I look at her, "You're coming with us too, aren't you?" She smiles weakly, and shakes her head, "I can't... I need to help my brother and the soldiers, get the princess out of here. I look to Elincia, and she nods to me. We get on Godot, and I look to Lucia one last time. "Be careful now Lucia." She nods, "I will. You know... I might take you up on that offer, if we meet again.

I blink, then laugh. "Heh, I'm looking forward to it." She blushes, and waves us off, and Elincia and I gallop towards Teytan. It should only be a half hour ride.

Elincia's grip on me tightens, and she looks at me. "My lord, do you think my father will be okay?" I look back at her and smile as best as I can. "Don't worry, the king's a hardy man, he won't die so easily." She nods, and pulls in closer, hugging me.

She must be shocked at the events transpiring, I know I am. Nothing more was said, and eventually, we arrived at Tetyn. I stable Godot, and then walk into town with Elincia. She was holding my hand, probably scared; I bet she's never been without Lucia or Geoffrey before.

Eventually, we stumble across the Inn, and entering, immediately find Marina and the gang, alongside the, oh my god, Greil Mercenaries. Everyone immediately looks at me, and Marina comes forward and pulls me into an embrace.

"Dylan! Thank god you're alive; I heard the army had arrived!" I could see from the corner of my eye that Mirian was chuckling, and Boyd was whistling. "I'm glad you were worrying about me, but I can't breathe Marina!" Greil looks at me and laughs. "Looks like you're quite the ladies man boy!"

Hearing that, Marina backs up and looks away, probably embarrassed also. Mirian walks up to me and introduces me to the Mercenaries. "While you were gone Cain, we acquired the help of these guy's, the Greil Mercenaries. The one over there is their leader Greil, and his son Ike and daughter, Mist." Mist waves at me and Ike nods back to me, man Ike is so cool!

"These three are the brothers-in arms, Oscar, the oldest, Boyd, the punk, and Rolf the shrimp." Oscar waves hello, but Boyd glares at Mirian, and Rolf sticks his tongue at him.

"The two in the corner are Gatrie, the big one, and Shinon, the merc with a mouth." Shinon doesn't even turn his head, and Gatrie's too busy ogling Marina.

"The last three are Titania the deputy commander, Rhys the cleric, and Soren the quiet one." Titania comes forth to shake my hand, and Rhys smiles at me, and Soren doesn't say anything.

"Everyone, this is Cain, our newest member." And then Vreia comes out of nowhere and puts an arm around me, her hood magically gone from her visage. "And don't forget, our boss!" Ike looks curiously at me, and so does Elincia, with Halimond laughing.

"So kid, how does it feel?" I don't say anything in response, too busy being confounded to care. Elincia walks up to me, and pulls on my sleeve.

"You have quite the interesting friends, my lord Cain." She says, smiling sweetly, man is she cute; heck every girl in this world is probably attractive. Ike takes notice on the otherwise silent Elincia, and comes up to me.

"Who's the girl, Dylan?" Ugh. It's so confusing being called twenty different things. Well, looks like I gotta tell everyone. "This is Elincia." I look at her, and she nods in approval, "The princess of Crimea."

Now that was enough to shock Shinon, and Soren to say "What!" Even my gang looks at me shocked, looking at Elincia. Marina comes up to me, and puts a hand to her hip. "What did you get involved in Dylan?"

I decide to recount the events to everyone, and was met with some praise on my part, for not only rescuing the princess, but leading my mission effectively, and taking on a miniature army by myself, even Greil was impressed.

After explaining these events, Marina and I decided on a course of action, to head to Melior and talk to the king, and alongside the Greil Merc's, we began to set off, but something in the sky had caught my attention.

"Marina, l-look, Wyverns!" Everyone looks to the sky, and a squadron of wyvern riders clad in black armour were riding in the direction of Melior, there were at least twenty of them! But what was the most surprising thing, and the least expected thing was...Mad King Ashnard was leading them.

"Damnit!" Things aren't looking to well for Crimea.


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6: Path's Diverged_

Things are looking grim, I'm afraid. I run frantically to my horse, Godot with Ellincia behind me, and get on. Hoisting her up, we move out towards the rest of my company.

Greil calls forth his mercenaries, designating roles for our plan of action, with Marina, providing helpful choices for her own squad.

"Alright then, I'm going to assign you to groups and then a mission." Greil says, a serious expression on his face.

Marina, looks us over, and assigns the first group, assisting the army in the defence of Melior. "I want Shinon, Gatrie, Rhys, and the three brothers to help the Crimean army in their defence of the city." They nod, except for Rolf, who tugs on Marina's sleeve.

"Miss, I-I don't know how to fight!" Boyd laughs at this, and pulls him off her by the collar of his shirt. "Well now's the perfect chance to learn kiddo!" and with that he drags him off with the rest of their group, I hope he's okay.

A piercing cry coming from a villager distracts us enough to notice that bandits were running among the villagers, cutting them down and setting buildings on fire.

Marina looks to our group, and points to three. "Halimond, Mirian, Vreia, I trust you can handle this." They nod in approval, and in unison say, "Yes Ma'am!" then head off to attack the bandits.

Greil looks towards Ike and Mist, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Ike, you're coming with me on this one, Titania, Soren, I expect you to watch our backs."

Mist though, looks frustrated at being forgotten, and speaks up to Greil.

"Father! What about me! You can't expect me to just wait here while everyone is working so hard!"

Greil looks to his daughter, with an expressionless face, must be a tough decision for him. "I can't put you in any danger Mist, you can't fight. You'd only get hurt." Marina, on the other hand, is starting to get impatient, and decides to end this quarrel.

"It's alright Greil, me and the kid will be there, and he's not too shabby of a bodyguard, apparently."

Ouch! That hit me right in the gut, and in retaliation, I shout "Hey! I'm a GOOD bodyguard!" Greil can't help but laugh at his, along with Elincia and Titania, and he looks to me.

"Alright then, I'm expecting you to protect my daughter boy!" I smirk, and with a mock bow, and almost falling off Godot, say "I won't let you down!"

We made for Melior, which was a short ride from here, so Titania, alongside Soren, Elincia and I, Ike, and Mist, rode on ahead.

Elincia wouldn't allow me to leave without her, and demanded that she come too. It's as if I'm her father, haha...oh wait, she has a father, who's going to die really soon, not on my watch hopefully. We rode towards Melior from the south, and were making fast progress too; Titania was sporting a determined expression, while surprisingly Soren looked slightly nervous...slightly.

Elincia, on the other hand, was shaking behind me. "Are you alright princess? You're shaking quite a bit." She nods to me, a smile on her face, although her eyes tell another story. "I'm worried about my father, he's been feeling sick as of late, and I don't know if he can defend himself against this assault." I smile at her, as best as possible while trying not to piss myself from the imminent doom ahead. "It'll be fine princess, you're father can handle himself, and I'll be protecting you, so don't worry."

Although, I know that things won't be fine.

Elincia lightens up a little, and we tread ahead. Ike approaches me with his horse, and he looks to me, with a blunt expression on his face. "Hey. We've already been introduced, but I'm Ike, Greil's son." I smile at him. "Cain, or Dylan, or whatever you see fit. I'm a mercenary like you."

He nods in approval and laughs at me, but since it was Ike, it became a COOL laugh. "That's quite confusing, I'll just call you Cain then. How long have you been a mercenary?"

This time I laugh at him. "It's my first day actually." And that elicits shocked responses from Ike, Mist, and Elincia, alongside Titania who was up ahead. "First day? Marina must have high expectations of you." Titania says. "How long have you been training?"

I snort at the question, "two days, well a day and a half actually."

And that elicits yet another shocked response, alongside a curious look from Soren.

"T-That's quite daunting my lord, and to think you killed at least eleven men today."Elincia says, a funny look in her eye. and Ike looks to me, nodding in approval.

"Wow, you're good, well better than me! What do you think Soren?"Ike looks toward the sullen mage, who in turn, looks to Ike, then to me, and after mustering up the willpower to care, he finally mutters a half-hearted "Not bad." Well, it's Soren for you.

Mist on the other hand, is looking at me in amazement, her face beaming at me from behind Ike. Ugh, too cute, I'll puke. "You must really be good then Dylan! Ike had to train for several years before father would even consider letting him on missions." She says, and chuckles, only for Ike to turn as red as a tomato."You don't need to tell them that Mist!"

Elincia and I laugh, a smirk apparent on Soren's face too. Eventually we arrive at Melior, only to witness a bunch of soldiers prancing about up ahead.

"Darn!" Titania shouts, and the rest of us jump off our horses and prepare ourselves, the soldiers marching towards us. Titania, taking charge of the situation rushes towards the soldiers, killing one right on the spot, and rides back before she could get hit in return.

Meanwhile, Soren finishes casting a wind spell and knocks three soldiers off their feet, which Ike and Titania finish off, but while they were busy, three soldiers charge at me and the girls.

I look to pull out my dagger, but it was gone, and I didn't have enough time to unsheathe my sword. Noticing this, Soren immediately begins to cast a wind spell, but even I could see it won't finish it time.

Alright then, time to see what these mysterious gloves can do. Breathe, clear my mind... and I did. I began to concentrate on my gloves, the soldiers getting closer.

Mist looks to me with pleading eyes. "Do something Dylan!" and without losing focus, reply. "I'm on it!" and suddenly my gloves begin to glow a bright white, enveloping the black of the glove, dissipating to see that it was now two black gauntlets faintly in the shape of a dragon's head, made of some form of metal.

"Alright!" I shout out, and decidedly charge at the soldiers. Left wide open, two of them fall quite easily to my barrage of fists, downed in only a couple of seconds. The third on the other hand, snapped to his senses and attacked me ferociously.

Looks like the Daien soldiers are actually improving! I dodge a couple blows from his sword, deflecting one with my gauntlet, and I punch him square in the chest, it knocks the wind out of him, but he recovers and renews his assault, dodging Soren's long anticipated wind spell.

I constantly deflect his blows, and after a while, he stumbles, leaving him open for an assault.

I hit him with a left hook and jab at him with my right twice; I then kick him with my left foot, spin, and smack his face with my backhand. He stumbles backwards, but I rush in and give him a hard right upper, lifting him up into the air, knocking him out cold.

It was an odd feeling, it was as if each hit made, made me slightly faster and stronger, and it left the others appalled, even Soren.

Titania came up to me, the rest of the soldiers defeated.

"Wow, those gloves, what are they?"

I cock my head, and reply, a weird feeling disappearing from my body. "It's a pair of magical gloves, dubbed Cestia. That's all I know when I took em off a dying man."

The name just came to me, and I went along with it, although the dying man part was obviously a lie." Soren looks at me curiously, eyeing the gauntlets, which reverted back to glove form. "Where exactly did you get these gloves?"

I think for a second, for story purposes, as I already knew what to say, I just needed to make it look good. "...Honestly, I don't know. I...awoke in a forest, and was taken care of by Marina and the other's, I found the man before I ran into these guys, and shuffled the items under my shirt, since I initially thought they were bandits."

Soren nods, but Elincia looks at me worried expression.

"My lord, do you happen to have...amnesia?" I fake a sad smile at her, and nod. "I guess that's what you call it." "Oh my..." was all she said, and Mist came up to me with a similar expression.

"It must be hard... are you alright?"

I nod to her, but then I look towards Titania and Ike. "Enough with this, let's move one..."

They nod, and we begin to move ahead. "Hey, wait!" a voice says, I turn around, to see that it's Marina, and Greil, accompanied by a grey-haired, mask-toting man. We wait for them to catch up, and Greil looks to Titania.

"We must get to the castle quickly; it's under siege by Daien's wyverns." The ninja-esque man moves towards us. "You'll have to pay me for that info, you know." Well, looks like Volke decides to pop up alongside his money-mongering personality...cool!

We all look to him, and Greil speaks up again. "His name's Volke, he's a thief, but there's no time to chat, we need to move now!"

And we ran through the terror filled streets of the city, villager's running amok Crimean guards and Daein soldiers, buildings being destroyed and bodies thrown about. It wasn't a pleasant sight.

"This is terrible." Ike says grudgingly. I look towards Elincia, who was running behind me, although lagging far behind from the rest of the group.

I lift her up and she yelps, and I carry her, piggy back style. I smile at her, and resume running, catching up with the group. "Don't worry, if you're worried about your father, we'll be there shortly, and I can't let a princess strain herself too much!"

She blushes, and thanks me, and I can see her trying not to cry, poor girl, it must be an entirely new experience, a frightful one to say the least, well, a scary one for me that is.

We ran through the main street to see even more carnage, but ignored it entirely to get to the castle. Eventually, we arrived at the castle garden, only to find an abundance of wyvern knights, and an assortment of soldiers about. Noticing us, they prepared to attack.

Seeing this, we did too, and Greil unsheathed his monster axe, while Ike pulled out his iron sword. Soren and Titania stood behind them, and Marina was at the front, holding two steel swords, along with Volke, who held an iron dagger.

I stayed back with Elincia and Mist however, as they were my responsibility. Elincia pulled out her staff, and I gave Mist my sword, although I fail to see how much it might help. I breathe in, and as I focus my magical reserves into my gloves, they shift into the gauntlets. Marina and Volke eyed me weirdly, but Greil snapped them back to attention, the soldiers had begun their assault.

Soren immediately knocked two soldiers to the ground with his wind spell, and Ike and Titania finished them off, then went out to attack other soldiers.

Marina was flying about the battlefield, killing wave after wave of soldiers with her dual blades, and Volke watched her back, while also decapitating anyone foolish enough to get near him.

Greil on the other hand was fending off two wyvern knights by himself, slamming his axe into a rider after he makes a mistake to rush in foolishly. That left me, and the girls near the gate, standing by, while Elincia was healing some of the others with her staff, and Mist was preparing for an attack, if anyone got through that is.

They were doing pretty well, but an endless amount of troops were assaulting them, and fatigue was apparent on everyone's face, well you couldn't really tell with Volke, and Greil barely broke a sweat, but still... I stood there though, unable to help the others, since I had to protect both Elincia and Mist, being unable to do so in the heat of battle.

"_Darn! I wish I could help them!" I thought. _ Maybe one of the other gifts can help me or something, it can't hurt to try.

I focus my mind on concentrating on Horus' Vest, but nothing happens, and the same thing occurs to Amaterasu's Ring, so I try the amulet that I received from Irinis.

I breathe in, and exhale, focusing my mind intently on the amulet, and amazingly, words flood into my head, and a melody along with it. It's haunting melody causes me to feel faint, but calm, somehow all at once. I then begin to chant the weird hymn, and the words seem to float off the tip of my tongue.

"_Anahon ihconi erokoh ikas, etihsagok orokok onok etihs ot nir. Ezak irokon aw unamay ikuf, _ot e usa eteragan in uoy umihso ow ih ona..."

A glow begins to appear around Ike and the other's and envelopes them in its glow, dissipating in just a couple seconds, revealing them free of fatigue, and brimming with energy.

The group ahead quickly glances at me, and I decidedly put a hand to my forehead, hoping to pass this off as a memory recovering incident, as to not give way to suspicion. Hopefully, they think of it as me remembering something, Instead of "Woah! You're from another dimension!"Now that wouldn't help at all.

The song was assuredly a heron galdr, and I'm sure of it! Now I can be all buddy-buddy with the herons, or at least try to.

The group turns away, save from a smile and thanks from Marina, and continue fighting, suspicion of me magically vanishing, thanks to the genius that is Dylan!

The soldier's who were cocky before, are now being overwhelmed, even if riding big fat lizards, and were struggling to fend off their attackers.

All ofa sudden, a gruff voice invades my head, oddly similar to how Irinis does, and begins to speak. _"Hey! I ain't that big you runt. You should put on a few pounds, I could probably toss you around like a fly."_

"Wh-What!" I stammer, garnering weird looks from both Elincia and Mist. "Are you okay Dylan!" I nod, but choose not to reply, causing for more concern on Elincia's part.

"My lord, you look a little pale... are you certain you are fine?" I put on my best smile for her and pat her on the shoulder. "You don't need to worry about me, I'm fine! That goes for you too kid."

With that said, I pat Mist on the head, she's actually quite short, and she shies away, choosing not to say anything. Wow, my mind's being read, really creepy.

I look at the wyverns, trying to figure out which one was talking to me, well it must be one, seeing as it took offense at being called a fat lizard, which their race is.

"_Hey, I told you I'm not fat!" _and after saying that, a heavily-armoured wyvern near the castle was glaring at me, although its rider was far more busy dealing with Greil. I look to the wyvern, and nod slightly, scratching my head in wonder. _"So Mr. Lizard, how is it that you can speak with me?"_

He grunts, gaining a passing glance from his red-headed rider, and says _"Not sure, but that neck thing of yours is giving me so many weird vibes."_

I look to my necklace, which had looked no different than before, I wonder if it really is the cause, since I started my Dr. Dolittle history after it's activation.

"_Well, either way, it's pretty freaking fun!" _I say, or rather say telepathically, smiling slightly and the wyvern scratches his back, knocking off its rider, and began attacking the Daein soldiers.

"Woah!" I could hear Ike say, as the wyvern was now rampaging through huge bundles of Daein soldiers, turned pancakes. The wyvern roars ferociously, scaring the shit out of the remaining soldiers, and flies to my side, garnering even MORE strange looks from my allies directed at me, great.

This is going be really hard to get out of, to say the least. _"Well kid, I'm gonna join in on your little adventure, it won't be boring, to say the least. Just feed me lots of Daein soldiers, those pieces of shit don't even take care of us properly."_

I nod to it, giving it a thumbs up. I turn to Elincia and Mist, both in awe at the wyvern looming over them, and call them. "Elincia, Mist, get on its back, trust me!" and that is enough to usher Elincia and Mist onto him...err, her back? Umm? _"He." _He says, as if the voice wasn't a dead give away, but you can't be too sure with non-human creatures.

He then takes to the skies, and flies quite high, being quite a distance from any assailant, and with that, I join into the fray.

"Alright!" I yell out, gaining the attention of Ike and Titania, who were surrounded by a large group of soldiers. I rush in and begin to strike at one, dodging a swipe, and finishing him off, then continuing the assault on two other soldiers, who thought to gang up on me at once, a weird feeling washing over me again, as if I was growing more powerful by the minute.

Ike and Titania, seeing an opening, and began to cut down the other soldiers, and in a matter of moments, they were on the floor. "Thank you!" Titania says, smiling, and calls for Ike to help her out against another group, but before he could even move, a booming voice echoes throughout the air, as if he was a god.

I wasn't far off, as I see the Mad King atop his mount, and accompanied by an old dude I didn't know, and...Oh shit! The Black Fucking Knight...who can't help but stare at his best friend, Greil.

Greil on the other hand, was too busy analyzing the situation, it was clear that we were outnumbered as fuck, luckily, the soldiers withdrew behind these heavyweights, my enemies no exception, and Ashnard cockily marches forward alone towards Greil.

They havee a quick exchange which I don't catch, and then Greil snarls and swings his axe at the king, only to be blocked by his amazingly sexy sword. By Ashera, I swear that I'll snatch that sword up right away when he dies.

Well, the soldiers didn't take kindly to the Merc's outburst, and were about to assault us again, but then Ashnard laughs, bellowing out along the ranks.

"Ahahahaha! That's rich Gawain! To think that you can't even hold a sword, what a pity." He paced back and forward, and looked towards Ike.

"I'm guessing that's your boy, he's a pitiful fighter at best."

Ike didn't take that too well, and Soren had to restrain him, he looked to the rest of our motley crew, and skimmed past Titania, Marina, and Soren, although giving him an odd glance, then finally

resting his eyes on me.

"You on the other hand, show promise. You can fight well, and hold some mysterious powers that have never been seen, not only that, but you somehow manipulated one of my general's wyverns to wreak havoc amongst ourselves.

"You are powerful, and only the powerful deserve a right to live, a right to power! Join me; a new world is in the making."

Greil's expression is of anger, and he glares at Ashnard quite venomously, then glaring at me. "Don't listen to him kid, he's mad!" I nod at him vehemently, and look to Ashnard and say:

"Power isn't something I'm interested in. This world is a world that is already fighting for power, recreating it is nothing more than starting over again, only to find the same results. I do not need to be powerful to make a difference, and being powerful doesn't mean you have to make one!"

I hold my fists out to Ashnard. "And I don't need the difference that you're making." He looks at me incredulously, then begins to laugh yet again.

"You're very interesting indeed, don't think I've given up on you." He looks to Greil again, and smirks, beginning to walk back to his mount.

"Well, your lot is of no interest to me, the deed is done, Crimea has already fallen, and the monarchy, dead. I'll let you go, for now...begone!" I look to the others, and they're slowly moving back towards the gate, until Marina gives us a signal to run the hell out of there.

"Go! Hurry and escape!" Marina shouts, and we begin escaping the courtyard, but the Daein soldiers choose to give pursuit. _"Hey need a lift runt?" _and with that, Mr. Lizard drops out of the sky with Elincia and Mist, landing on the ground in front of me. Ike looks at Mr. Lizard and is flabbergasted at it. "That's something Cain, recruiting a wyvern to help us like that!" Ike says, a puzzled look on his face. "We need to get out of here fast, father what do we do now?"

Greil looks to the big fat lizard, and decides we need to make for the Greil fortress. "Kid, I'm trusting you in watching Mist and Elincia, but I need you to tell the others to head to the fort, that wyvern could probably do the job." Greil looks back, soldiers gaining on us. He begins rallying the rest of our troupe to follow him. Marina however, comes to me first.

"Don't do anything stupid Dylan, I won't be there to watch your back." I glare at her in response, fighting her glare back with my own. "...When have you ever done that? Out of the one mission I've been on, I've fended for myself in every fight." Elincia and Mist laugh at this, and Marina looks away embarrassed.

"I guess I'm not a good teacher then..." I look at her sympathetically, and place a hand on her shoulder. "Don't say that, you're a great teacher! But anyways, I'm off."

With that I hopped onto Lizard here, and flew towards the east of Melior, Marina waving us off. Elincia was curious as to what happened while she was flying though. "My lord Dylan, have you heard from father? Or my uncle Renning?"

I obviously knew of what happened to Renny, deciding to feign ignorance, but since I lack PoR experience, I can't say much for the king, although Ashnard did say some things..."I'm sorry princess, I believe that your father...has passed on."

She didn't say anything, but she wasn't crying either. "Elincia, I know it must be tough for you, but we can dwell on memories later, now's not the time, to put it so bluntly."

Mist, who was sitting in the back quietly decided to speak up, and hopefully brighten Elincia's spirits. "He's right princess Elincia, you need to stay strong, it's what every parent wants for their children." Decidedly keeping quiet about her own mother.

Mist then turned to me and nonchalantly decided to bring up the topic of amnesia, how surprising of her.

"Did you remember anything about yourself Dylan? You looked like something hit you when you were singing that song." Elincia's eyes sparkled slightly at the mention of that topic, I'm guessing I attract gossip with my weird situations; at least it brightened her mood somewhat. "What was that song anyways my lord? It was quite enchanting..."

I think of a reply, and decide to pull a safe one out of the bag. "I only remembered a couple phrases, like Hatari, and heron galdr, nothing about myself at all, but I was surprised I could speak the Ancient Tongue."That should link up quite well with a background from Hatari, I just need to sort it out with Nailah, three years from now. Mist looks at me with a funny expression, and proceeds to ask me another question. "What's this Ancient Tongue?"

Elincia, on the other hand responds to this. "From what I've read in books, it was the original language of the laguz before the current one."

I nod to Elincia, and finish her job as a history tutor of two seconds. "...And is the language galdr are sung in."

Elincia looks to me and frowns cutely. "Don't forget magic too my lord."

I laugh at her, and with that, all three of us begin gossiping randomly, until I see the three brothers and Rhys cornered near a tree surrounded by enemies.

"_Is this my cue runt?"_ He turns his head to look at me and I nod, he then descends towards the four and rams into a couple soldiers, and they take the opportunity to finish off stragglers. "Hey you guys alright?"

I ask them. The three of them walk towards us and Boyd is staring straight at Mr. Lizard, who stares right back, they all look a bit fatigued though, so I sing the galdr, which I think is Vigour, or Bliss, or something.

"_Anahon ihconi erokoh ikas, etihsagok orokok onok etihs ot nir. Ezak irokon aw unamay ikuf, _ot e usa eteragan in uoy umihso ow ih ona..."

The effects envelop them entirely, and when they reappear, they look brand new, well slightly broken for Boyd, but that's normal.

"Wh-what's this magic Cain!" He says incredulously feeling himself all over, as the light dissipates. "And when did you get this fat guy anyways? Mr. Lizard didn't enjoy that comment, and he starts thrashing his neck about.

"_Hey, can I eat this punk?" _I shake my head_. "No, you cannot."_ He stops, and snarls at Boyd, causing him to back up. "It's...a long story Boyd."

Mist says calming him down somewhat, and I ask for the whereabouts of the others. "What happened to the others?" Rhys walks up to me, and decides to clarify to me their situation.

"We lost Shinon and Gatrie in the heat of battle, and can't seem to find them now."

I nod in response. "Any news from Halimond?" This time Oscar speaks up. "Well... Those three finished fighting the bandits, and came to help us out, but disappeared too." I take this all in, thinking of the best solution, and did, although I didn't like it.

"...For now, we're all heading back to your fort, we can worry about the others later, they can handle themselves, but you need to get back first."

They nod at me, but before Elincia, Mist, and I could depart, Boyd throws Rolf to us, quite hard actually, since it made me cringe inside.

"Take the kiddo with you, he's no help with us, he can't even fight properly." Rolf looks at his brother angrily, picking himself off the ground. "I can't help that Boyd! I've never fought before!" Boyd scoffs at this however, and walks up towards him, flicking him on the forehead.

"Well, having deadweight with us will make it harder, take him with you Cain." I agree, but inside, I totally didn't want to, I was fine being a ladies' man, but now I look like a babysitter more than ever, protecting three people won't be easy in a fight, and it would be tough for Mr. Lizard too. Either way, we took off, and headed straight for the fort. It'd take a while, but we'd get there eventually.

"_You think you can handle four, you fatty?" _I say to the wyvern, and he flaps his wings suddenly, as if boasting about his strength. _"I've handled tougher situation's then just four kids, and it's Arghelk to you, kid." "And mine's Cain." _I pat Arghelk on the back, and look ahead, awaiting our destination. It was funny actually, in just one day, one kid had broken through what was known as Path of Radiance's introduction,from what I do know about Path of Radiance however, is that the real game starts now; I wonder how it'll play out? Guess I've got to just wait and see since my guardian wouldn't tell me these things, right Irinis? Well, like good ol' Auron would say, _"This is your story, it all begins here."_


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter 7: Indecisive Decisions_

"We'll be there shortly." Mist announces, Arghelk roaming closer to the fort in the distance.

The fort in question? Inhabited by the Greil Mercenaries. The Ominous soldiers assaulting the fort? That's right, The Daien Army!

"Oh my- Cain w-what's going on!" A stuttering Rolf says. "It looks to be a battle, and Greil's group is defending the fort's perimeter."

Rolf however, is still sputtering like a leaky faucet, or something of that matter. Mist was looking down to the battle now under us, and quickly locked eyes with Greil, who was in battle with quite a few soldiers.

"Father! We're over here!" I turn to her direction and glare at her to shut up, but before long, everyone is looking to the enormous wyvern.

A couple of soldiers looked up in surprise, and breaking the silence, one of the mages screamed "The Princess, get them!" Oh how nice.

"F-fuck." I turn my head to Elincia, and she's just as uneasy as I am. Mist and Rolf were holding each other, in preparation for a likely roller coaster ride, and just so you know, I hate roller coasters. "Cain! Get them out of here! Head for Gallia!"

and with that statement, Greil began directing the rest of the gang to mercilessly attack the soldiers.

I pat Arghelk on the back, and urge him to move, and in less than a second, he ferociously rampages through the sky, dodging incoming arrows and spells directed at us.

With a loud roar, he turned suddenly, and charged for Gallia.

Mist and Rolf were shouting, and holding on to the harness with as much grip those puny little hands could muster, Elincia was holding on to me, but she was much more calmer than the other two, which was a pleasant surprise.

"Mist, Rolf, can you stop screaming!" I say, though I made just as much noise in that outburst, well at least they shut up.

Before we were in the clear though, large flapping sounds were coming from behind us, and to my horror, a squadron of wyvern knights were on our tail!

"N-no!" I utter, and the others turn to see the group gaining on us. _"Damnit, Is this how it's gonna end!" _I think, and Arghelk shakes his head, and increases his flying speed, it won't be much help if Gallia is still a ways from here though.

"_Kid, this isn't gonna happen on my watch! Just make sure you don't get hit, and tell the little fleshling to use that slinger of his!" ..._Slinger?

I look to Rolf, and on his back was a quiver chock full of arrows, and a bow in his hand, I didn't even know he had one on him, now why the fuck is he not shooting! "Rolf what are you doing! Shoot already!"

He turns to me however, tears in his eyes, and vehemently shakes his head side to side. "I-I can't! I can't do it Cain!" I growl at him, causing him to squeal, and snatch the bow from him.

"Fine! Then I'll do it!" I take the bow, and Elincia passes me an arrow from Rolf's quiver, I hold it in my right hand, and aim to a wyvern gaining on us. Tugging the string, I slowly pulled it back as far as I could, and waited.

"My lord, what are you doing?" Elincia asked, I was continuing to hold the string back, and watched as a wyvern knight finally decided to pursue an attack.

It rushed for our side, and the rider proceeded to prepare to behead one of us with his axe, but I knew a chance when I see one. The rider was close enough to attack, but I was close enough to actually hit him too.

"Now!" I shouted, and released the arrow I held. It spiralled towards the rider, and struck him right in the neck, not what I was aiming for, but it was close enough.

The wyvern seeing his rider downed, flew away in confusion, and the rest of the squadron, which was five wyverns, decided that they wanted to join in.

Great... "Duck!" I hear Mist yell, and a javelin flutters by, a little too close to my face then it needed to be. I wavered in response, and nearly fell off, but Elincia straightened me out.

"T-thanks." I say, and Elincia returns it with a smile, and I nock another arrow she gives me, preparing to shoot another guy that flies in too close.

"_Arghelk help me out here!" _I tell him, and he swerves to the right, and with that, I was close enough to the enemy to shoot, and shoot I did. The arrow impaled the wyvern near the eye, and it swerved uncontrollably, eventually falling into the sea of trees below.

"Yes! Headshot!" I yell in accomplishment, but the battle wasn't finished yet.

The wyverns decided to attack at the same time, and even though Arghelk was careful, we ended up being sandwiched in between them, with another one flanking us.

They dove in to attack, and Arghelk dodged a couple blows, but the wyvern rider in the back was constantly chucking stupid javelins at us.

"You guys duck, I'm getting rid of that bastard!" Elincia and Mist ducked, and Rolf did too, still shaking in his boots, and I prepared an arrow, and aimed slightly above the bastard;

I released the arrow, but it didn't make contact, fluttering a little too high above the target, grabbing another arrow, I shoot at a rider that dove in from the side, only for him to dodge and dive in again. Arghelk managed to dodge, but it was clear he was tiring, four passengers, and three assailants to handle would be tough even for Tibarn, or someone who could carry four people for that matter.

"_Kid! I can't keep this up for too long, whattaya want me to do?" _I dodge an incoming swipe, and shoot at the attacker, injuring the wyvern in the leg, but not stopping him.

"_...Run up, and punch the guy off!" _Arghelk lets out a menacing roar; and charges at the one to our left, beating his wings ferociously, and swiped at the rider with his claw, and batting away the wyvern with his tail.

"Only two left Cain" Mist says, and holding her sword out, directs me to get closer to the other one. "Cain, get me closer to that one!"

I nod, and usher Arghelk to move in, he then begins clawing at the wyvern, only for it to fight back, managing to claw at us, lucky we have an ARMOURED wyvern.

I let loose another arrow, and shot the beast in the back, the rider attempting to swing his axe at Rolf, only for Mist to block it with her sword.

She began assaulting the rider with slashes, parrying a couple blows he attempted, and stabbed the rider in the chest with the sword.

The rider fell off the wyvern, sword still in body, and the wyvern flew off, glaring at us indignantly.

I aimed another arrow at the javelin wielder, and as we pulled in close enough, I shot the rider square in the forehead, although he managed to nearly hit me in the arm, but before I knew it, I was falling, and falling isn't a good thing.

"A-aaaah!" _" Arghelk get over here!" _I was picking up speed, and in a couple of seconds, I was about to splat all over the grassy field, hey, we're in Gallia...It was nice knowing you Gallia!

"Damnit!" I closed my eyes, anticipating death, but strangely, it didn't come.

I opened my eyes, and looked to see me held in the scaly claws of a wyvern, thank Ashera, I'm alive! We landed on the field, and Mist and Rolf were hugging each other, jumping for joy and surprisingly, Rolf dropped to the floor and kissed it, as if reuniting with a long lost lover...lovely.

Heh, alliteration, well I would be the same if I was a baby like Rolf, so he can have his kiss. I got up, and shook my head, brushing the dust off my pants, and attempting to fix my hair, or bird's nest replica.

I looked to the others, Arghelk was lying on his belly, panting, and Mist was shouting out in joy, Elincia, on the other hand, rushed to me in a flying hug, knocking me to the ground. "My lord, you scared me to death! I-I'm glad that you're safe."

She smiled at me, tears in her eyes, and trying really hard to prevent them from running. Poor girl, so innocent, and losing almost everyone close to her in just a matter of minutes, the least I could do was let her hug it out.

At least we got to Gallia all safe and sound.

After a couple minutes, I pulled us both up and called the other's over, and we began deciding on a plan of action.

"Alright then, now that we're all in one piece, let's figure out our next objective." I looked towards Mist and Rolf. "Any ideas?" Rolf didn't know what to do and simply shook his head in response, so I turned to Mist.

"Well...It'd be best to contact the king, but let's find anyone nearby, we can then move on from there." I looked at Mist in surprise; I didn't expect that of her, well, game text doesn't amount to much of the character's personality I guess.

"Not bad, we'll go with that!" I pat her on the head, causing her face to redden significantly. I let out a slight laugh, and see a dirt path in the distance.

"Let's see where it leads." And with that we began our trek towards civilization, although it was more of a hop.

"Cain, I'm hungry!" a shuffling Rolf says, holding his stomach as if in pain. "Me too. Is there anything to eat?"A grumbling Mist says.

I only shake my head, noticing that the sun was going down, so we decided to stop to rest. We didn't have many supplies, given our quick arrival, and escape of the fort, and it'd seem as if I'd be the one to do all the work here.

Elincia sat on a nearby rock, clearly fatigued from our endeavour, so I chose to ignore her for now. Rolf and Mist were attempting to get a fire running, so I guess I was in charge of food. Scratch that, Arghelk will do it.

"_Yeah, yeah kid. I'm on it; it's not like I could NOT hear what you were thinking." _I laugh at him, well in my head that is, and I look around the area, attempting to find a source of water.

Eventually, I run into a small lake, not that far from camp either, surrounded by an abundance of flora and fauna. The lake wasn't that deep, so I could see fish swimming about, at least we don't have to worry about food.

After several attempts at catching a fish, I managed to seize three in quite a short time, although I could oddly follow their movements for some reason, well either way, I brought back the fish, and happen to see a nice fire going, and a cute little bunny getting prepared to be gutted.

The thing's I do in this world. "Hey. I brought some fish with me, there's a lake nearby so clean your selves up. Rolf, gather some water for later."

He looks to me from his position nearby, and getting up, nods to me "Alright boss!" and wonders off just as fast. "...Boss?"

I look to Mist questioningly, who just nods and smiles at me, then to Elincia. "I believe that, since you are the most experience one out of us all, you are our leader my lord."

I laugh at her, and flop down beside her. "This is only my first day you know!" Elincia giggles at this odd situation, and has seemed to regain at least some of her vigor from before.

"Well, there's a first for everything!" with that we both laugh, and after a minute, we get up sit near the fire.

Elincia and Mist then begin a conversation, and I quickly, and wisely, maneuver my way out of it. I look to see that Rolf returned with two water canister-things, and placing them in his sack.

"Hey Rolf, do you have a knife on you?" I ask, and he briefly skims through the contents of his bag, tossing me a small knife. "Thanks."

With that, he returns to tending to his own matters, and I prepare to skin the fish, the bunny...can wait.

"Hey." I call out to Rolf. He turns to me his expression a little timid-like. "If you want to be useful, then I can help you with that."

He looked at me in surprise, only for it to change to joy in a second. "Y-you'll...teach me how to fight?" I laugh at him.

"No matter what people say no one's dead weight. Everyone has their strong points and weak points, but it's how we use that knowledge to be of use."

Rolf is literally bouncing off walls after this, and he comes up to grab my hand.

"T-thank you Cain! I promise that I'll be able to help everyone!" "Heh." Is all I say, at least I know he'll grow up to be more useful than Mr, Lizard over here.

Seriously, he has friggin claws and he manages to snag ONE bunny. My wyvern must have something wrong with him. Arghelk makes a grunting noise, and he turns to me, growling in contempt.

Obviously, thinking through things thoughtlessly won't increase my survival chances anytime soon, oh! How alliterate! And ironic too. I begin skinning the fish, and after doing so, remove the innards, and I was quick to notice that it was a female too, more reason to remove the innards.

After doing so, I took the meat of the fish, and skewered it to a stick, and after doing the same with the others, who were gladly male, set them down near the fire. I cleaned the knife, and cautiously looked in the direction of the bunny, it had claw marks on it, and looked as if it's neck was punctured, obviously not a lizard, obviously.

I skinned the rabbit, generously laying flat the pelt, which was so fluffy, now I feel bad. I brace myself, and proceed to gut out the guts, and all the rest, and after countless mental traumas, succeeded in preparing the rabbit.

Mist walked up to me, and tossed me two small pouches; I sniffed the contents, salt and pepper. "Here Cain, you can use these to prepare a soup, I can help you if you want!" she smiles at me innocently, although I know that when Mist's cooking it might not be _that _innocent.

In the end, I agree and we take to preparing the soup in a bowl from which Rolf pulled out of his bag.

It was quite small, so it wasn't really odd to see a cooking utensil pop out of his bag, and if it was odd, I swear that I'm not a Gary Stu, if I was a fictional character to be put to torture by fanfic authors in the first place.

"Alright so just add the fish and rabbit meat, and we can cook it!" Mist says, beaming while preparing the food.

To my honest surprise, she was actually good at cooking, good thing too, or I'd have to be the one to cook, or Elincia, but I'm too lazy and she's too cute!

As we waited for the soup to cook, we began talking about what might have happened to the mercenaries, it'd be bad if they well, died you know? "I wonder what father and the others are doing?" Mist ponders; she fiddles with her hair, and looks to me.

"They're obviously looking for us, they couldn't possibly have died, and they seem to be a capable bunch."

She nods, and moves to sit beside me, now I'm starting to get uncomfortable, I can approach women just fine, but when I get approached, well...it's happened a lot at school, and I ended up dreading school.

"You know, you're pretty capable yourself Cain!" she leans on me, gaining the odd, jealous look and an eccentric giggle from Elincia and Rolf respectively.

Sorry Elincia, it's not like I'm even a considerable option in the first place. I turn my head, only to see Mist's a little too close to mine, and I can feel my cheeks flush bright red.

I move away, and sit on a nearby rock, and look to Mist, her face being red too, but I chose to say nothing, thank you silence. "My lord, would you sit with me?" Or not.

I nod to Elincia, and plop down beside her, smiling at her as best as I possibly could while dying inside. "So what's up?" I say to her.

Elincia tilts her head in confusion at me. "What's up? The sky of course!" Wow, just wow. So cliché and expected, I feel like puking.

"It's the same thing as 'anything new?'" I say. She smiles at me, although somewhat sorrowfully, and looks into the fire.

"It's just, I don't know what to do now my lord. Everything's...different. My father, Uncle Renning, Lucia, and Geoffrey...I want to help Crimea, but I don't know how." I simply smile at her, and ruffle her hair, the answer's simple of course. "Princess, you don't have to worry about anything. If you want Crimea, then take it from Ashnard, the people would accept you for your actions, not heritage. If you lack the means to do it alone, then I'll be there to protect you, it was my job to get you there safely after all."

I could see that she was physically relieved at hearing this, and looked to me with a sincere look in her eyes.

"...Thank you my lord Cain, I'm happy that you're here at my side."

With that done we ate our meal, which was actually pretty good! All thanks to Mist! Everyone then began to fall asleep, it was a sight.

Mist, Rolf, and Elincia were all cuddled up under Arghelk, and he blanketed a wing over them. God, this was even more so cliché, I wanted to puke even more, go Squirtle! Water gun!

Well, it looked to me that I was the one keeping watch, and watch I did, although I began to feel sleepy.

I decided to contact Irinis, to see if everything was alright, and to prevent my eventual slumber.

"_Irinis, you there?"_

I looked to Arghelk, he was fast asleep. No worries from him for now, but I got to figure out how to stop communicating with him, there are things that just can't be allowed to reach the surface.

"_Yes, I'm here young one. What is it that you need?" _I took a second to get my head straight, then prepared to slap her with a pop quiz.

"_Well, how are things with the universe, has it changed considerably? Not at all? What are the rest of my gifts' functions? And what are their hidden powers?"_

I could hear her chuckling, and when she stopped, she began to hum a reminiscent melody.

"_That's...The Galdr I sang..." "You are correct. It is the Galdr of Vigor, which I'm well you are aware of. The universe itself is still following it's predetermined path, even though you are able to influence it, it has not strayed. Only one thing will in the near future, and that is for you to see if it bodes ill or not."_

I nod in response, the Galdr perking me up, and listen to what else she has to say.

"_As for your gift's I believe it's due time you know their worth. Cestia, you are already familiar with, each individual hit, be it weak or strong, will increase your fighting ability for a short burst, this is to be used in conjunction with your fighting style, which is hand has other abilities, but they are of no importance now. The next, your vest. It is called Harmerty and contains two powers, one of the hunt, the other of protection. Your ring, called Ookami, holds the ability to see, perception, hidden secrets, will all be brought to light. And mine, the Amulet, has no name. It simply allows you access to hearts, be it your own or others. This is why you are also able to sing Galdr, which are songs of the heart."_

At least I now know what I'm capable of, screw swords! I'm godly! Yet again, I could hear her laughing, I ended up thinking of a name for the amulet though.

"_Verius, it has a nice ring to i, doesn't it?."_

"_I agree, pray tell where you conceived it?"_

This time I laughed. _"Hah! It's a name of a spirit from an old game I played, it was the summon spirit of Heart, so I thought it fit."_

"_I see."_ Was all she said. We sat there in silence, until I finally worked up the courage to ask the question I wanted answered the most.

"_Hey, Irinis. Will I ever be able to go home? Do I have a home to go to?"_ all I heard was silence though, and it didn't seem like it would lift anytime soon.

"_...Fine, I can live with it, for now. But I want answers someday." _I sat there, for quite a while, and eventually dozed off.

The next thing I knew, I was the first one the wake up, yet being the last to fall sleep, yet again an ironic situation, but what was more ironic, was that my cute little family, had enough room to accommodate a cat.

"Hey you, get up. I've got some questions for you."


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter 8: Laguz Encounter_

"Hey you, get up. I've got some questions for you." At that moment, my eyes flew open, and I got to my feet, bow in hand.

Damnit, I want my old weapons back... I look to see the origin of the voice, and to my surprise, it belonged to an orange-haired green wearing cat girl, a pretty cat girl.

As she saw me, she prepared herself in a fighting stance, and stared me down with her hateful eyes, yep, that's Lethe for you.

"Ugh, nevermind. I don't want to fight. You've got questions for me?" I drop Rolf's bow, and return to laying down. I looked to the cat girl, and for SOME reason, she seemed to be even more fired up. "...Stupid. You Beorc are so stupid. Who are you, and why have you entered Gallia?"

Umm, ouch? Was Lethe always this mean? "The name's Cain, a mercenary. It was my job to get Princess Elincia safely to Castle Crimea, but many things have happened, and we fled to Gallia. Would it be okay to request you to take us to your king?"

The other's began stirring, and were beginning to get up. "Princess? Crimea has no princess." I only look away, and try to appease her suspicion.

"I assure you, she is the Elincia Ridell Crimea, Daughter of King Ramon, and with her guidance, will take back Crimea from the Daien usurpers."

Lethe still had an incredulous look on her face, and it'd seem as if she wouldn't budge. "I don't have to listen to the likes of you, human."

I only smile at her, and try to think of an easy solution, she doesn't look like the type to enjoy fights, but Laguz have their pride or something, right?

"How about this? Let's have a duel, If I win, then you'll listen to our story, if not, we won't bother you. You up for it?"

She continued to glare at me, but her eyes wavered to the others, I hope she's sympathizing with my situation, come on, like three kids and one able fighter?

"...All right, then, prepare yourself human!" and with that, an eerie light began to emanate from her, and in the blink of an eye, what took on the appearance of a young girl, now was that of an oversized cat.

"Cestia!" I call out, although totally unnecessary, was totally necessary for me. The gloves glowed, and transformed into the gauntlets, and I prepared myself for assault.

Now if she fight's anything like Vreia, then I've got this. Lucky for me, she did exactly what Vreia did, and pounced on me, instead of preventing her attack, I fell onto my back, and she flew above me.

I knew that the battle was already over. I grabbed her tail, causing her to fall to the ground, and squeezed it. "Mwreeaorr!" Lethe shrieked, and in a matter of moments, she reverted, at least the tail thing works, I only hoped it did, and it did, lucky me.

I held out my had to her, but she swatted it away, looking flustered from the quick endeavour. "Y-you human! Why don't you fight like a man?"

I only laugh at her, and I pick her up forcefully. "Ahahah. Well, a deal's a deal, so if you'd please?" she only nodded, but quickly looked away, probably embarrassed at her defeat.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone!" This caused her to redden even more, and she lashed out on me, scratching me on the face.

"Ow!" she stomped off in direction of the lake, and I sat there with a wound on my face. Elincia and the others came up to me, wondering about the odd situation that took place.

"My lord, who was that person?" Elincia pulled out her mend staff, beginning to heal my face, and I utter a silent thank you.

"She's our new guide, and will take us to the king, so everyone get ready." Everyone began packing their materials, and I walked up to Arghelk, deciding to yell in his ear.

"WAKE UP!" and with that, he suddenly thrashed upward, probably surprised at the outburst, and grunted at me.

"_...Geez, I'm up kid. So where to today?" _I point in the direction of Lethe, and then look back to the lizard.

"_She'll take us to the king today, don't eat what you're not supposed to eat, and don't cause any trouble for any of the Laguz."_ He grunts again, proceeding to take to the air, and flutter about.

"_Alright kid, don't worry about it, I'll be following you anyway." _I nod, but then get an amazing idea, no use having the lizard here right?

"_On second thought, I want you to fly back to Crimea, and help out the others, if possible, somehow assist them in battle. Please?"_

Arghelk looked to me with a hilariously funny wyvern look, and I couldn't help chuckle a bit, but he began to take off. _"Fine, I'm on it. There better be a feast when I'm back!" _and with that he took off.

I look to the others. Elincia, Mist, and Rolf were in the middle of a discussion, so I decided to but in. "Hey, are you guys ready?" the other's look to me, smiles on their faces and Mist decides to speak up for the group.

"You know, whenever you interact with that wyvern, he always has this weird expression on his face." Mist giggles, and Rolf can't help but laughing too.

"Y-yeah, it looks like he's smiling or something!" I walk up to Rolf, and ruffle his hair.

"Well kid, I take care of my pets...anyway. Mist go check on the cat girl for me. Rolf, I'm gonna teach you how to hold a bow."

I picked up the bow in my left, and holding the arrow in the other, nocked it in place, while pulling the string back.

Rolf is watching intently at my motions, and when I was ready, I let go of the arrow, hitting the target I was aiming for, a distant tree.

I throw him the bow, and pat him on the head. "That's all you need to know to get good, just practice and you'll quickly be better than me."

He nods at me, and runs off to practice his archery, I look to Elincia, and she's smiling at me. Why is she so damn cute? "Hey Elincia, need something?" woops, I forgot to call her princess, my bad.

I bow my head meekly, and scratch the back of my head.

"Princess I meant, sorry." She only smiles at me, and she takes my hand, holding it eagerly.

"We're friends aren't we? I'd like for you to call me that, would it be okay if I call you Dylan?" I laugh at her.

"Hah, so you remember my name. It's not like I've told many people, but sure, it'd be nice for a pretty girl to call me by name."

She blushes at this, and let's go of my hand, turning away in embarrassment. "So Elincia, shall we?" she turns around and smiles at me coyly.

"Alright...Dylan." After a while, we're all ready to get moving, and Mist and Lethe return from the lake, and Rolf finishes up his practice. I take a step forward to Lethe, and hold out a hand to her.

"Thanks for doing this; like I said earlier, I'm Cain. This to my side, is Elincia, and the kids over there are Mist and Rolf." She takes my hand, and shakes it firmly, looking to the princess, then back to me.

"I didn't expect that you'd be so close to this princess Cain. Well, my name is Lethe, a proud warrior of Gallia. I work directly with the King himself."

Mist and Rolf stride in to our conversation, interrupting the quality time me and Lethe were having. "H-hey Cain, we're not kids!" Mist says with a hint of playfulness in her voice.

"You always treat us like that, but I bet you're not even that much older than me or Rolf!" I tilt my head questioningly at the kids, and smirk at their childishness.

"So, how old are you guys then?" Rolf walks up to me, and starts bouncing around in place. "I'm fourteen!"

He says, excitedly, his demeanor proving his age true, and Mist walks up to me, beaming quite brightly also. "I'm sixteen. See? I'm a young lady!"

I turn to Lethe, who was surprised at how close our group was, despite our lack of knowledge for each other, and nervously plays with her nails "Th-Thirty."

I chuckle at her, while the others are looking at her in shock. "It's to be expected. I'm a Laguz, and we live longer than you humans."

I only smirk at her, causing her to fidget nervously, and turn to the princess.

"How about you Elincia?" She turns to our direction, and calmly gives us her age. "I'm eighteen my lord Dylan." I pat her on the head, my assumption was close enough, and I smile at her.

"Heh, I expected you to be younger, now I have to stop doing this, since I'm younger than you." I take my hand off her head, and the other's are looking at me surprised, especially Lethe.

"Then, how old are you?" I smirk at her. "Seventeen, not even an adult yet." I walk towards the dirt path, and I look to Lethe.

"But enough of this, let's get a move on." And we did, although I did garner a couple of funny looks from Lethe." "Wow, barely old enough to attempt their first hunt, well, for my people."

Mist and Elincia are walking beside me, while Rolf is behind, practicing his pull on his bowstring. Lethe on the other hand, was leading the way, and we strolled behind merrily, today's weather was nice too.

Elincia turns to me, and looks about shyly, attempting to say something. "U-um Dylan? You can still, do that, if you want to. I-I'm fine with it." I chuckle at Elincia, and pat her on the head again, only for her face to brighten up, causing Mist to laugh.

"Now when did you two get so close? I want to call you Dylan too, how about it?" I laugh at Mist, and ruffle her hair playfully. "Whatever you feel's best kiddo."

We continued trekking, and I took note of what was happening around us. We passed a small town, and a couple of Laguz looked at us curiously. Rolf's archery seemed to be pretty good, he was shooting at targets I pointed out to him, and eight out of ten times, hitting his mark.

Mist and Elincia were quickly getting close, and were gossiping about things with each other, leaving me and Lethe to talk.

"What an interesting group you're leading. Out of everyone, it looks to me that you're the only one able to fight, save for the archer boy, and that wyvern too."

I only nod at her. "Well, the wyvern abandoned his owner, which was an enemy general's and decided to follow me, I originally only had to watch Elincia, but was entrusted with Mist, and soon after Rolf too."

I look back to the group and smirk at Rolf. "It's pretty interesting, you've got that right." She looks at me curiously, and decides to ask a question.

"Hey, by the way, how did you know I was going to pounce like that? Have you fought Laguz before?"

I can only chuckle at that comment, as she was still sore from the defeat, I place a hand on her head and ruffle her hair, only to be punched in the face, hard.

"Oww, what was that for?" She turns to me with her glaring eyes, and says "D-Don't touch me like that." I rub my face, in an attempt to lessen the pain.

"I thought we were good friends, you and I." She begins fiddling with her nails again, and turns away from me. "We're not that close yet, human." Yet again, I chuckle, and decide to answer her previous question.

"Well...I have a friend like you, although she's much more wild, and jumps all over the place. Whenever we fought, her pride always got the better of her, and she pounced on me in the most predictable way possible, and you know the end result."

She looks to me curiously, a soft expression on her face.

"What's this person's name?" I nod, and tell Lethe. "Vreia, she's a tiger, although she like's using axes these days."

Lethe looked away, with an odd look on her face.

"Vreia huh...I haven't heard that name in a long time." With that, our conversation ended, and we had finally neared the entrance of Castle Gallia, it was surrounded by trees, and loomed high atop a hill, we arrived at the entrance, and a couple of Laguz were standing about at the entrance.

"H-hey Lethe, who're the humans?" one of them said, the other being a large bearded man, spoke up.

"This one smell funny, smell like bird." Lethe turned to him, and began initiating conversation. "Yeah I know, but that's not the issue Mordecai, he's requesting an audience with the king."

Oh, it was Mordecai! The other man, who was slightly smaller than Mordecai, turned to Lethe and spoke. "Alright, what should I tell the king?" Lethe turned to me, then turning to the princess, and replied. "Princess Elincia of Crimea wishes to speak with him."

The Laguz looked at her in surprise, and the smaller one walked into the castle. "Al-alright, I'll tell his majesty."

And with that disappeared from sight. I took this chance to introduce myself to Mordecai. "Hello, my name is Cain, a mercenary. Thank you for having us." He nods, and pats me on the head, to the amusement of Lethe, Elincia, and Mist.

"I'm Mordecai little man. You smell like Heron, you meet Heron Laguz?" I only shake my head to him, "Not that I know of."

And we all walk inside. The castle was pretty lavishly decorated, adorned with many statuettes and paintings, completely different than what I expected, but I've seen the castle already, In Radiant Dawn anyways.

We passed along many different Laguz, who eyed our group curiously, and eventually arrived at the throne room. I look to Elincia, who appears to be slightly nervous.

"Don't worry Elincia, we'll all be there with you." She smiles at me, visibly looking calmer, and we walk into the room. Lethe takes initiative and kneels in front of the king, and I quickly follow suite, as well as the rest of my entourage.

"Your Majesty, I bring to you a Beorc who wishes to speak to you." The king, a gruff looking man with a somewhat gruff appearance, got up from his throne and descended down towards us.

"He looks to me, as I look to be the leader, and approaches me. "Stand human. What is your business young one?" I stand up, and bow to the king as politely as I can.

"My name is Cain your Majesty. In light of the recent invasion of Crimea from Daein, I fled here with the princess, as we were being pursued."

He turns from me, looking at Elincia, who now stood and bowed gracefully. "It is an honour, your Majesty. I am Elincia Ridell Crimea, daughter or King Ramon."

This time however, the king let out a little chuckle, and bowed to the princess. "Elincia, it is good to see you are well. I'm sorry about your father and uncle; it must be hard on you." Elincia smiles sweetly at the king, it seems they've met before, and she looks to me. "It was, and still is, but I have to thank my Lord Dylan for looking after me, and she beams at me. I turn away in embarrassment, and the king laughs at my embarrassment.

"Ahaha! It seems you've picked a good one Elincia!" and with that comment, she began to blush. The king turned to me, and returned to his throne, throwing me a kind yet solid look.

"Now tell me of your involvement Dylan, what has happened in Crimea?" I take a deep breath, and recount the entire tale to him, this also being a first time for Mist and Rolf, who have yet to hear the entire story, from my awakening in the forest, to my involvement with Marina, then the endeavour at the castle.

"...And now, I'm hoping to liberate Crime from its current holder. I know it is too much to ask for another country's help in this affair, so I only ask you to watch these three, I plan to reunite with the rest of my group, and safely accompany them here, after that we can figure out a plan of action."

The king looks to me, an understanding look on his face, and he turns to the shadows. "Ranulf, I want you to accompany him, I'd like you to see what is happening first hand, and report it to me." And out of the shadow's the cat walked, and the jovial looking cat, glanced at me, and then responded to the king.

"Your wish is my command your Majesty. We will prepare to leave shortly.' He walks up to me, and shakes my hand, I return the gesture.

"I'm Ranulf, nice to meet you." I nod, "Cain, likewise." He leaves the room to prepare, and Lethe and Mordecai stand up. "Your Majesty. Mordecai and I would like to accompany this man, since I was the first to encounter him, I believe it is my responsibility to show him how well the Laguz fight." I smirk at her, and she turns around, ignoring me.

Mist couldn't help but laugh, and let out a chuckle, only for King Caineghis to get curious. "All right Lethe, I'll allow it, you of all people should be able to handle yourself." He looked to me, and smiled gently. "If you would have them, they shall join you. They are top class Laguz; it'd be unlikely for them to lose to greenhorns, more so beginners, so you can rely heavily on these two."

This time I can't help but grin, and Elincia, and Mist burst into laughter, Lethe on the other hand, exploded in embarrassment, and was blushing madly.

Mordecai looked to his partner, a curious expression laid on his face. "Lethe, have you lost to Beorc?" her expression pretty much revealed what had happened and King Caineghis burst into a jovial laugh.

"Well Lethe, it looks like you're going to need to improve some more." She nodded, and quickly slipped out of the room, leaving us with Mordecai.

He came up to me, and squeezed me to death in a big manly hug, ouch.

"Nice to meet you,Beorc. I am Mordecai, Mordecai strong." I managed to break free from his vice grip, and shook him by the hand. "Nice to meet you too, glad to be working together."

He nodded, and he walked out of the room, this time however, Caineghis dismissed the three kids out too. "Ahh, Elincia, Mist, and Rolf. Would you mind allowing me and Dylan to discuss matters?"

Elincia looked at me briefly, but turned away. "Y-yes your Majesty." As the three walked out of sight, Caineghis walked up to me, a grim expression on his face.

"Dylan, you may be a greenhorn, but there is a mysterious air about you, one would even say that you resemble a heron, it may not be so, but what is your parentage?"

"Well, for what my information's worth, and I think it's worth quite a lot, I believe I'm human, although my amnesia might say otherwise." I simply look away, unable to truthfully answer the question, and he smiles nonetheless.

"The princess relies on you more so than anyone Dylan, don't be the one to betray her trust." I bow to the king, and then take my leave, it seems he suspects me of something, but trusts me enough to not say anything, it still doesn't feel good lying to everyone, but I can live with it. I exited the throne room, and looked to a nearby Laguz, asking him for something.

"Excuse me, do you know where I can clean up?" the attendant-like Laguz looks at me curiously, but directs me to a nearby lake, which is where I'm probably bathing in. "would you like a change of clothes?"

The attendant, who was a man, asked. "No thanks" I reply, and I wait for him to leave, then stripped down, although still wearing my ring and necklace, those effects seem to disappear when I take them off, so I left them on.

I cleaned myself, and then for the first time, was actually looking at my own skin since coming to Tellius. That would also explain why there was a mysterious looking brand I've never seen before at the base of my neck.

It looked to be a rune of some sorts, and I immediately thought of it to be a brand. Although, it's most likely a spirit mark, since I am in league with spiritual beings, yep that's most likely it.

I forgot about the brand, and finished cleaning some of my bruises, and washed my hair, which kind of smelled, well, compared to how the mercenaries smelled, I was still pretty good.

I got out of the lake, and after drying myself off, put on my clothes, I looked at the empty dagger sheathes on my belt, along with my missing sword sheath.

I need to get new weapons, and fast too. I headed for the castle garden, located atop a hill nearby; yeah the castle was elevated differently at different parts of the castle. At the garden, Lethe was there, and sparring with Mordecai, they were both shifted, Lethe a cat, Mordecai a tiger.

Lethe was pounding around Mordecai, clawing him multiple times, while Mordecai attempted to dodge her blows, throwing in some powerful blows, which hit nothing but air, Lethe eventually jumped on top of him, and in an anime-like appearance, finished him off with a spectacular combo.

"Mordecai give up, Lethe is strong." Mordecai shifted back, a couple of wounds on his face, while Lethe shifted also, untouched by the burly man.

She noticed me sitting near a tree, watching the match and strolled over, her face beginning to grow an irritated expression. "Hey human, I challenge you to a duel." With that, she forcefully picked me up, and pulled me towards the sparring area.

"H-hey, I have a name you know!" I say, although it looks as if she isn't listening, she immediately shifts again, and before I knew it, was attacking me. "Cestia!" I yell out, and my gloves brightened up, blinding her for a moment, momentarily, and shifted into the gauntlets.

I prepared myself into a fighting stance, my left held slightly forward, and my right near my chest, while I leaned to the side.

Although I only boxed for little more than a month, I knew how to handle myself, she charged at me, and instead of leaping, decided to circle me constantly, leaping in unexpectedly attempting to claw me every so often, whenever she did though, I was quickly able to dodge it.

"Now it's my turn!" I say confidently, and rush at her, before she could attempt to dodge. I threw a left jab, and then a right hook, contacting with both hits, and I threw an uppercut, only for it to be a miss, as she dodged it, then kicked me back.

I could already feel the power I'm gaining from the gauntlet's ability, and rushed in for another assault. This time she attempted to hit me, but I sidestepped to the left, dodging the blow, and countering with my own assault.

I hit her from the side with countless jabs, and a hard right straight, she flinched from the impact, and it seemed my blows were getting stronger;

She clawed at me, scratching my tunic, and pounced on me, causing me to fall to the floor. Instead of rolling aside, I decided to flip her, and I ended up on top.

I pinned her down, causing her to struggle, and she nicked my on the face, after a while though, it was clear who won the battle, and she reverted back to human form, so I did the same with my gloves, feeling the rush slip away.

"Fine, you've won again human; I hope you enjoy putting me down..." I look to the irony of the situation, as I'm still on top of her, and begin to tickle her.

"Oh, I will!" "St-stop it, I'm – ahaha-stop!" she said, and was rolling on the floor in torture; Mordecai looked onward from afar, and was chuckling quite a bit. I stopped the tickle assault in a sense of pity, and moved forward to whisper in her ear.

"You know, you're not that bad of a fighter, and you're cute too." She blushed madly, and after I got up off of her, she punched me in the gut.

"St-stupid Beorc!" and she stormed off towards the castle. "Ahahaha, what an excellent display lord Cain!" I turn to the direction of the voice, and it was Ranulf, who was clapping humorously beside Mordecai, who couldn't help but chuckle.

"Your powers mysterious, and style unusual, I'm going to keep an eye on you!" I smirk at Ranulf, and walk up towards him.

"Oh come on, It's not that unusual! I don't have my sword, or daggers on me, so I adapted to the many battles weapon less."

Mordecai grinned at me, and patted me on the back. "Beorc is strong, but smell funny; you do not need to fight with Beorc weapons." I only nod at him, and Ranulf eyes my gloves mysteriously.

"Those gloves of yours are quite unusual, they happen to be enchanted, yet don't produce much of a magical presence, where did you receive them?" I fidget around with the bangle on the glove, deciding to reply cautiously.

"Well, if you were still listening on the conversation in the throne room, you'd know that I just woke up in a forest, gloves in hand, Mordecai could tell you as much as I know."

"Hmm..." Ranulf placed a hand on his chin, in what seemed to be deep thought, but just as quickly, began walking away.

"We'll be leaving in a short moment, try not to cause too much trouble Cain." And he walked into the castle courtyard. Shortly after, Mordecai and I joined everyone in the mess hall for dinner, and what a feast it was, there was meat, meat, and even more meat!

Oh god I'm in heaven. Many of the Laguz were stuffing their faces with the food, Mordecai no exception, and King Caineghis was even more so. Lethe on the other hand, was eating quietly, although downing her food in such a fast pace.

Elincia and Mist were chatting with Rolf, and eating at a more Beorc pace, smiles abound on their faces, while I ate quite a lot, knowing myself, and damn it was good.

Ranulf walked up to me after I was stuffed from the feast, and pulled me out of the room, garnering odd looks from Elincia and Mist.

"It's time to go Cain, Come with me, we'll rally up the troops, and assist your friends in getting here. I say good bye to the kids, and Lethe and Mordecai join us.

Mordecai nods at me, while Lethe refused to look at me at all, leaving me to smirk to my heart's content, in a short manner of time, Ranulf rounded up at least a dozen cats and tigers, and we were all gathered in the courtyard.

Ranulf walked ahead to the gate, and decided to give a rather primitive, but successful speech to his brethren.

"Brother! It is time to help our ally Crimea, when it requires aid the most. We have Princess Elincia in hand, but her loyal fighters are struggling to make their way to safety, that is why we will be the heroes today. Let's move!"

The Laguz roared in excitement, and quickly ran after their leader, Lethe and Mordecai were standing with me, and suddenly Lethe punched me in the shoulder.

"Well Cain, what are we waiting for?" I smile at the cat, and begin running ahead, the duo following me closely "Alright then, come on!" Our miniature army began its march, hopefully we'll make it in time to help those mercs...


	9. Chapter 9

_Author's note: Hello everyone. Thanks for reading my first written story, hopefully it'll prove to be better as more chapter's are produced. I'd just like to say that other than the obvious changes in the main storyline, I'll be changing a couple things to add up with my story. For example, I've added at least a couple of more Laguz reinforcements, due to Cain and the other's arriving in Gallia earlier than expected, and being situated at the castle, it would only make sense that there would be more troops available. Well, I hope you continue reading, and please review If you've got the time, it'll only benefit me in the long run!_

_Chapter 9:Reunited Front_

"...I've no sign of them anywhere." Ranulf says; a trail of uncertainty in his voice. Our little Laguz group had just entered Crimea's southern border after a day of travel, and bodies of Daien soldiers were strung about, killed off by assailants.

"At least we know that they've been here...somewhere." Ranulf nods at this, and we search the battlefield for a clue to their whereabouts.

I stumble across a soldier's body, and well, began to shift through his belongings, to the amusement of Lethe.

"Hah! It seems you Beorc are as low as I thought you were! We Laguz would never steal the dead's belongings."

I take the soldier's unused vulnerary, and his slim sword, strapping it to my side, and after finding his coinpurse, snatch that too. Lethe was sniggering behind my back, and after some effort, I decided to drop the gold.

"Fine...I won't take his money at least. He can have fun spending it on furnishings for his grave."

Lethe looked to me, an irritated look on her face. "I didn't tell you to do this for me, human." I only smirk at this statement, and I walked up to her, and dramatically flicked her on the forehead with as much grace a forehead flick could provide.

"Well, what if I wanted to do this for you? You're pretty cute you know?" She scoffed at this, and punched me in the gut, walking away, albeit with a flustered expression. At least I expected that.

"Are you alright Sir Cain?" Mordecai approached me, concern on his face. "Lethe is a strong warrior, but she is stubborn when it comes to Beorc, please do not get too angry."

Surprisingly I withstood the blow and remained standing, it's not like cats have much strength anyways, and quickly brushed off the slight pain.

"Yeah I'm fine; don't mind me, although I think her anguish was because of an entirely different subject." Mordecai accepted this comment with a small chuckle; he really was just a big softie.

We continued our examination of the area, eventually Mordecai had caught a holds of something.

"I smell something nearby...the smell of blood." Ranulf ran up to Mordecai, and took a sniff of the area as well, producing the same results, although I hardly find smelling blood in the middle of a battlefield as producing results.

"You're right, let's proceed down this way, the smell get's stronger here." We began to set off in the direction of this scent, although I quickly notice something among the bushes behind us, man these abilities of mine prove useful sometimes.

"Come out. I won't hesitate to kill you where you stand." And just as those words exited my mouth, Mist and Rolf had jumped out in quick succession, petrified looks on their faces.

"Oh! Hah, it's you kids, what are you doing here?" I put on an angry expression, and Mist and Rolf didn't seem to notice it was me yet. The kids, seeing that it was a friend and not enemy, quickly breathed sighs of relief, Mist then decided to explain their reasons for following us.

"I wanted to see if Ike and Father were okay, and Rolf was worried about Oscar and Boyd. D-don't get angry at us Dylan..."

Rolf was shaking in his boots, and almost on the verge of tears. "Ah, family bonds... I'm not mad, so don't cry Rolf!" I ruffle his hair, smiling at him, and he sucked up his tears, and grinned back as brightly.

"T-thanks Cain."

And with that we set off to catch up with the group. "Well well, looks like the babysitter remains a babysitter." Ranulf says to me, a condescending grin plastered on his face. "Well, at the very least, they're a lot easier to handle than Lethe."

Lethe blushes at this, punching me a second time, and the blue haired cat smirks at the predicament. "Heh, I see what you mean. We stumbled upon an old fort while you were behind, it seems that a battle's taking place inside, should we interrupt?"

I look to the kids, who prepared their weapons, and Lethe and Mordecai, who proceeded to transform. The rest of the Laguz had shifted themselves, leaving Ranulf awaiting my decision.

"Let's."

With a loud roar of approval, we rushed towards the castle, following Ranulf's trail, and stumbled upon soldiers who were running away at our sudden arrival.

"A-aah! The Beasts are attacking!" one of them said, another was squirming about in panic, and had shit his pants in such panic, it would have mad Halimond proud.

"The-They're gonna skin us alive!" and they ran back into the room they exited. We stormed into the room, and found the Greil Mercenaries, trapped inside, flanked by at least thirty soldiers.

Wait a minute, how the fuck did Arghelk ever fit inside here! Well whatever. It seems that they didn't run off like they were supposed to, although it would be kinda rigged if they just went up and ran away.(*snigger*)

... Well that's what I get for trusting fanfics. Ranulf, deciding to take advantage of our sudden arrival, threatened the safety of the Daein attackers.

"Attention, Daein soldiers! Leave this place at once! If you do not comply immediately, you will face Gallia's full strength!"

A couple of the soldiers panicked at this statement, although the majority remained unfazed, most likely due in part for Rolf and Mist standing near the front lines, jittering about unprofessionally.

"Hah, these kids are Gallia's full strength?" An intimidating woman, saddled atop a horse glared at Ranulf, generally unfazed by his proclamations.

"Threaten me all you like, it's not going to frighten me off. If I leave, His Majesty will have me executed. I'd rather die here in battle, with my honour intact."

And with that, the enemy soldier's charged at us. The Greil mercenaries were attacking the group right behind them, while the Laguz strode in to occupy Petrine's group, the only reason I even recognized her was from an informative wall of text found in Radiant Dawn.

Lethe, Mordecai, and I proceeded to attack the group directly in front of us, supported by Mist and Rolf, and the room erupted into battle.

The Laguz duo immediately assaulted a couple soldiers in the front, with Mist and Rolf providing support on their strong, yet predictable assault.

That left a good four soldiers and three archers unoccupied, now those numbers I could handle by myself.

"Cestia!" I shouted, and the soldiers were surprised at the transformation, I pulled out my sword, and slashed at a soldier, following with an uppercut to a nearby soldier.

I punched at a soldier who was unprepared for the assault, and swung downwards on the remaining soldier, caving in his skull.

Amazingly, the effects of the gloves still applied, even though I was using a sword, good to know that it only requires it to be activated to be useful.

Rolf had shot an archer who was focused on me, downing him, while Mist had taken the opportunity to sneak up on an archer and stabbed him through the stomach.

I killed the remaining archer with a decapitating blow, looking away as I could hear the blood gushing out, disgusting.

Most of the Daein soldiers were killed, albeit Petrine's group who did a good job of staying alive.

I heard an eerie sound to my right, and as I turned, saw a glowing blade flying towards my direction. I parry it in time, and my group initially backs away, I rush forward to attack, only for this fellow's blow to push me back, damn did it hurt.

And look who we have here, the Black Knight in all his glory. "Withdraw, General Petrine." The general looked taken aback at his sudden entrance, as well as Ranulf's group, who withdrew a couple feet away from their position.

"The Black Knight..." Ze-I mean, the Black Knight, glanced at Greil slightly, and then back to Petrine.

"...As for your king, you have nothing to fear. I'll explain things to him. Take your men and go." Petrine looked annoyed at his arrival, but turned to her troops anyway, conceding to his higher rank.

"Tsk! All troops, fall back!" and they ran out of the room, leaving the Black Knight alone. "Hm?" Greil muttered, most likely freaking out at the Knight's lustful glances in his direction, and Ike couldn't help but state the obvious.

"He's staring at you, isn't he, Father?" Now now Greil, don't go blushing in front of your son. "Yeah. He is." And Ranulf ran forward, intent on killing the lovely mood.

"Hey! Are you planning on taking us all on by yourself?" and without a word, the Knight crept back into the darkness, disappearing from our eyes.

"Father?" It seemed Ike was still rattled by the Black Knight's ogling eyes, heck, we all are." We all exited the fort, and our group officially reunited. Mist ran up to talk with Ike and Greil, and I slipped myself away, taking a breather after all that's happened, and I sat down nearby.

"Hey there Dylan. It's good to see you in one piece." Marina walked up to me, a smile on her face. I returned the gesture, and gave her a hug.

"You too! So how did things go on your end?" We broke out of the hug, and she looked slightly flustered, although opting to reply to my question then stay silent.

"We were ambushed by Daein soldiers back at the Mercenaries' base, and began to fled in the direction of Gallia, after you took off before us. Well, things happened, and after countless battles...here we are.

"I smiled at her, and we began walking back towards the rest of the group. "I'm glad you're okay at least, Marina."

And I looked to Arghelk, who finally managed to squeeze through the entranceway. "You too Arghelk!" The lizard grunted in response, and flapped about happily. _"Same to you kid,there better be a feast waiting at the castle!"_

Marina looked at me questioningly, a smile on her face. "So his name's Arghelk huh? We've been calling him lizard since we couldn't communicate with him like you do." Oh snap! She's catching on to my wackiness, not a good sign indeed... "Hah hah ha..." She still glanced at me with the same expression on her face. "You're quite mysterious you know? Well, no matter. It just makes you even cuter."

I can feel my face flush at this, to her enjoyment, and my pain. I can only hope no one is watching this play out.

"_Heh,I am kid! What's wrong with having the hots for blondey here?"_

I chose to ignore Arghelk, and replied to her statement. "I can't really explain it... I just know thing's, when I don't know things...It's hard to understand isn't it?"

At least I was honestly truthful with that. "Yeah I get it, you may have forgotten, but you're body hasn't although it is quite unusual, the things you do."

I quickly decide to get off the topic, hoping that embarrassing her would shut up. "Well, you're a lot more beautiful then when I last saw you, I might even find myself asking you out on a date one day!"

To my avail, it worked, and her face reddened significantly at this comment, and she turned away. "I guess I'll be chatting with the other's, see you around Marina."

I smirked at her, and walked off, proud that my cover was kept up, no one is ever gonna find out about my dimension travelling experience, not if I can help it.

"_...So...About this dimension travelling experience?"_...Damnit.

"_Don't tell anyone, please!" _He grunted at me, and proceeded to pat ME on the head, the nerve of this lizard. _"Did you even have to ask? I knew you were interesting kid, so what's the story?"_

I pull Arghelk's claw off my head, and dust the dirt off of it, sighing as I prepped myself. _"I died, ended up in Tellius alive, ended up involved with gods, given god-like abilities, and then dropped in the middle of a forest with generally no task. Then I got involved in this shit. That pretty much sums it up."_

Arghelk looked to me, bewildered, and then made eerie noises equivalent to laughing, or so it seemed. It was so loud, everyone in the vicinity immediately glanced to see what was going on, with Marina, Mist, and Rolf rofling. Wow, that sounded odd.

"_Heh kid, well tell me some things whenever you feel like it, I'll leave you to deal with the others."_ And he flew off, probably looking for some long needed grub. Ike, Greil and Mist walked up to me, and Ike looked at me with the weirdest expression in the world.

"...What was that?" Greil started laughing, and Mist was tugging on my arm. "...I don't even know what happened there myself. So, what's our next plan of action boss?"

I said, turning to Greil. "Well, other than asking you to marry my daughter, we've been offered refuge in a nearby castle, tomorrow we'll visit the King, for now, some well earned rest." I immediately flushed at this comment, and turning to Mist, could see she had some problems with redness in her cheeks.

After composing myself, I immediately punched Greil in the shoulder, eliciting a quiet chuckle from Ike. "Very funny. I'll be leaving now, and never to return, I hope you're proud of yourself."

I march away, laughing a bit, and Greil called out to me. "You're a pretty decent merc, Cain, or so I've been told!"

I wavered a hand at him in response, it felt good being complimented by him, makes it kinda hurt knowing he might die in the unforeseeable future.

Right after the previous conversation, Ranulf, Lethe, and Mordecai walked up to me, Ranulf chuckling at my previous embarrassments.

"As I've said earlier, you're quite the mysterious individual indeed. We'll be leaving for Gallia soon, would you join us in returning to the castle, or remain with the mercenaries instead?"

"I'll stick with them for now. I need to see them to the castle myself. Tell Elincia not to worry." Ranulf smirks at this statement, deciding to have a little fun with me also.

"Well, I didn't know you were so close to the princess, would you like me to send her your wedding invitation?"

I decide not to get riled up about this, although the snickering coming from Lethe was making it hard not to.

"Well, we'll be off then, see you later Cain." Ranulf set off with Mordecai, preparing their soldiers to begin their trek, while Lethe came up to me, a playful smirk on her face.

"It was fun to see you squirm, human. See you later." I flick her on the forehead.

"That's Cain to you, kitty. You know what, call me Dylan, or I'll find myself boasting about my victory over you to every Laguz in Gallia!" She didn't take that well, as I found myself knocked to the floor, although I found myself laughing at her embarrassed expression instead of in pain.

"Hmph! I'm glad that I won't have to see your face for a while...Dylan." She trodded off towards the departing Gallians, and waved at me and Mist, I guess they're becoming friends or something, well that's just heartwarming, to say the least.

I waved in response, and turn to the mercenaries, who now gathered together in front of their leader.

"Everyone! We've done we'll for surviving this long. You all deserve some well earned rest, Gallia has allowed us refuge in a nearby castle, and so, what are we all doing standing here?"

The speech gains some positive feedback amongst the others, and we all find ourself marching towards Gebal Castle, although Greil had a worried expression on his face, no matter, it doesn't concern me. I walked up to Rhys, who took notice of my approach, and greeted me.

"Ahh, Cain. Nice to see you in good condition, I take it you succeeded in escorting the princess?" I laugh at him, a confident expression on my face.

"Well, of course! I was wondering if you could heal a couple of my wounds though, they're nothing top bad, but they added up from my initial wounds during our first mission." Honestly they did. I don't even know how I'm doing so well, as I was shot by an arrow, sliced by lances, and beaten up in general; man do Galdr and magic steroids help out in these situations.

"Oh my, you're right. Let me fix that up for you." He pulled out his heal staff, and it began to glow a bright white, and a soft feeling washed over my body, and my wounds simply disappeared, just like that. "Thanks!" I utter in gratitude and Rhys smiles at me.

"You're welcome, although you'll have to rest for a while, to fully heal those bruises." I nod in response, and dismiss myself, walking about aimlessly, until approached by Boyd.

"Yo, Cain! Haven't seen you in a while!" I smile at him, and we bump fists. "You too Boyd. So how'd thing's go on your end?" He smirked at me, and whipped out his axe, pointing it at my face. "Do you wanna see firsthand?"

Oh hoh! A challenge huh? "You're asking for it!" I pull out my slim sword, and hold it readily above my head, aimed towards Boyd's face, in a similar manner to Ike, who took note surprisingly.

We paced about in a circle, providing ample space to move about, as a crowd started to form. Eventually, Boyd tired from waiting, and charged at me.

"Let's see you try this!"...Are you kidding me! This guy's the same as Lethe and Vreia; a straight shooting arrow. He swung his axe, straight down, aiming for my upper torso, I dodged the attack, and swiped at him with my blade, and he narrowly dodged it.

I followed it with a kick, and knocked him to his feet. He rolled out of the way of my next strike, and jumped up with remarkable speed, swinging with such force that it took me by surprise, and he began to attack unrelentlessly.

I was having trouble handling his assault, although he never hit me once, I dodged a couple blows, while deflecting others, and he began to tire, seeing this opportunity, I charged at him.

"Bad move Cain!" He ran forward, and attempted to slash at me, I dodge this blow, but out of nowhere, something hit my foot and I begin falling forward.

"Gotcha!" Boyd was glaring at me, a smirk planted on his face. I quickly placed a hand forward, and pushed myself off the ground before I hit it, rolling forward. Boyd took this chance to attack me again but his attack was just oh so predictable.

I easily side stepped the attack, and circled behind him, leaving his backside wide open. "Oh shit!" He uttered, but before he could react though, I held aimed at the back of his head, my trusty slim sword.

"Game over Boyd!" I sheated my sword, and patted him on the back, and I could tell I was beaming at the victory. I smirked at Boyd, and decided to mess with him.

"You gotta practice on your swings more Boyd, you should get Titania to help you. Now she KNOWS how to use an axe." I place a hand on his shoulder, smirking at him and walk away, leaving Boyd embarrassed at his defeat.

"I-I'll get you next time Cain!" an irritated expression adorning his face. He picked up his axe, and quickly walked away from the looming eyes of the audience, quick to move on from this crushing defeat, although it was the closest I was to losing, other than losing.

"Wow, you're pretty good!" I turned to see a blue-haired girl beaming at me, and she was jumping about, man, another kid I have to deal with. "Thanks, I don't think we've met before, I'm Cain, a mercenary."

I held my arm out, and she returned the gesture, shaking my hand like a ragdoll. "I'm Mia, also a mercenary! Could you teach me how to move like you do? You're amazing!"

Me, amazing? "I don't think you should be looking to me for battle advice, this is like, my first week on the job, without prior training."

She looked at me unwavering from her statement. "But, the way you move about, it's as if you were just toying with Boyd!"

"...Huuh?" I looked at her questioningly, a blank expression on my face, and Titania strolled up beside me atop her horse...wait I think I have a horse too...

"She's right Dylan, you say that it's your first time fighting, but your body says otherwise, it could be from before you lost your memories."

Oh, this line of thought is getting me somewhere!

"Well...I can't remember anything, I just move how I want to move, that's all." She looked at me understandingly, a sweet smile planted on her face.

"It wouldn't hurt, to take in a student. Don't you already have Rolf?" I turned to look at Rolf in the distance, who was laughing at Boyd. He glanced over and gave me a thumbs up.

"Ugh, well...fine Mia, I'll train you." And with that, she erupted in joy, and gave me a tackling hug; I could already feel my face flushing; now I just hope that's the only thing that does.

"Thanks Dylan! You're the best!" "Y-yeah, well...Could you get off of me?" Her face reddened slightly, knowing where she was laying and got up quickly

"No problem! So when's our first session?" Ugh, I can already tell this is gonna be a pain, and I can guess that Rolf will be asking for my help too, albeit misguided help. "Um, let's worry about that later, at least until we get to the castle." She nods in understanding, and runs off ahead, to interact with Ike and Mist, why can't I just run off and hang out with someone silent? Speaking of silent people, Volke was nowhere in sight. He wasn't there at the earlier battle either; well I could always talk to Soren.

"Hey Soren, how're you doing?" He glanced at me, an apathetic expression about as expressive as a tree. "...I'm fine." I could already see the conversation dead, before me, so I decided to throw a curveball. Hey, it wouldn't hurt to ask his opinion.

"Well, I came to ask you about these trinkets of mine. I'm not well versed in magic, or well I think I'm not, so I was wondering if you could examine them... if you feel up to it."

His expression softened a bit, and he glanced at Cestia, curiosity apparent in his eyes. "I'll...think about it." He quickly began to walk off, but I called out to him, there's just one thing I need to confirm.

"Wait, Soren. Umm, you're a Branded, aren't you?" He looked to me, surprised although he probably heard this a thousand times.

"I...stumbled upon a mark on my body a couple of days ago, and the King Caineghis was quick to see that I may not be an ordinary human, could to tell if my mark is Branded or not?"

He looked to me his face unreadable, but composed himself quickly, his usual expression back on his face.

"...And what would it mean, if you were Branded or not?"

It seems he's touchy on that subject, well, I just have to approach it as carefully as possible.

"It wouldn't matter, I'd still be me. My origins have nothing to do with who I am as a person, it wouldn't matter if I was Laguz or Beorc or Branded."

He scoffed at this, and walked away. "You're thinking is very naive, to say the least. Stop by anytime." And with that, left me alone with my thoughts, we arrived at the castle at least.

I wonder how it would feel like to be Branded or Laguz, or a Spirit Charmer? Well no use dwelling on the mystery. We arrived at the castle entrance, and Greil and Marina assigned rooms for everyone.

Ike and Soren shared a room, while the three brothers had a room of their own. Titania and Rhys were bunking together, leaving Mist and Mia. I was assigned a room with Marina, and Greil got his own room, lucky him.

A flapping sound could be heard from behind me, and I turned to see it was Arghelk, who looked a little more fatter, although he was already fat, so it was hard to tell actually.

"_Man, that was a great meal!" _Arghelk scratched his head in delight, and flew towards the top of the castle, deciding to sleep there.

"_How was it? Find any good wolves and deer to chew on?" _He wagged his tail a bit, and made a yawning sound, eliciting a small chuckle from Mist. _"No deer or wolves, I had two rabbits, and stumbled upon a black horse, man was it delicious!"_

Wait a minute, horse? Godot...you'll be missed. I faked a sniff, and Arghelk was grumbling about, making a weird whimpering noise.

"_Well it's not my fault you've never talked about this horse? Sooorry kid!" _ He turned to face me, and curled up atop the roof, nodding off into sleep, while we all headed to our assigned rooms.

"Looks like we'll be bunking together Dylan." Marina trailed behind me, a smile on her face, she was pretty too, so it wasn't helping a growing boy to be sharing a room with a girl.

"I think the room assignments were rigged." I put in snidely, and she turned away slightly, partly due to her being the one to decide the rooms.

"W-well, out of this group, we're the closest, and I don't really know the mercenaries well." I nod at her understandingly, and pat her on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, I thought you knew Greil though?" She nods at this statement, and walked ahead of me a bit, looking back as we talked.

"Yeah I know him. He used to know my father, long ago. Either way, I'd be bunking with you, it'd be kinda weird any other way."

I nod at this, and we entered our room, it was starting to get dark outside, and I haven't really been sleeping properly.

"I think I'm going to get some rest for now, I'm beat!" Marina sat down on the bed on the left, and began stripping in front of me, oh joy.

"Alright then, no peeking alright?" I placed my weapons and bag to the side, and flopped on the other bed. "I'm not sure if I won't..." and I smirked at her, getting the reaction I anticipated and she was as red as Boyd was after losing.

"I-I'm kidding!" and I turned to the wall, and eventually began to nod off, taking note of Marina, who was watching me. "Good night Dylan." I smile at her in response. "...Night."

Today was pretty eventful, I just hope that we won't be encountering the Black Knight anytime soon, now that would be the most cliché event in the universe, am I right?


	10. Chapter 10

_Chapter 10: Irrevocable Destiny_

"_Kid, wake up! Something's going down outside, Ike and Greil are walking off towards the Black Knight!" _I jerk upwards in response, and get to my feet, quickly grabbing my sword. Marina was fast asleep cuddled up on her bed.

I shouldn't wake her, It's just my problem now. I walked out of the room, and as I crept towards the entrance, someone decided to follow suit.

"D-Dylan, what are you doing up so late?" I continue walking, I can't let her see what might happen.

"Go back to bed Mist, please." She looked at me with her innocent eyes, a small smile on her lips. "Please just go back..." She nodded in response, and hugged me.

"Alright. Whatever you're up to, just don't get hurt." I chose to say nothing, and broke free from her embrace, and exited the castle.

Arghelk dived downwards from his position, and I jumped onto his back, and he sped towards a small area of the forest.

"Father, no!" Ike screamed out in anguish, catching his father as they both slumped to the ground, the Black Knight wiped the blood off his blade, and pointed his sword to the duo. "Unbelievable. Is this truly what has become of my teacher?"

The Black Knight moved precariously close to Ike and his injured father, aiming his weapon poised to strike at Ike. "Now then, will you give me what I came for?"

That's it, enough standing by, Arghelk set off in response to my train of thought, and we bombarded towards the ominous warrior. At the last second, he ripped his sword through Arghelk's armour, alongside a good portion of his chest.

He let out a huge roar, and blindly charged towards the knight, so I decided to too. "Cestia!" My gauntlets formed, and I timed my strikes directly after Arghelk's managing to touch him, albeit him not taking any damage.

"Fools. You think to take on the Black Knight? You shall not live to see tomorrow." He assaulted us with his graceful sword strokes, and I barely managed to dodge them all. Arghelk on the other hand, took to the skies, and charged forth at random bursts, keeping the Knight somewhat off balance.

I struck at him with my sword, only for it to clatter to my side in response to his strike. The difference in power was just overwhelming. He directed his sword at me, and swung with so much force that I nearly blacked out, he followed it up with a thrust, piercing my innards.

"Argh!" I screamed out in pain, and dropped to my knees, and Arghelk came charging in. The Black Knight felled him in one swing, a blue shockwave ripping through his side, and he fell limp to the floor.

"A-Arghelk No!" I got up, and rushed forth to enact my revenge on the bastard, and managed to throw in a couple of weak jabs at his armour.

It doesn't matter how strong they have to be, I'll still be gaining the effects either way, and I continued my assault. "Gah!" I fell to the floor, after his blade ran through my chest a second time, and struggled to get back up, I was panting heavily, and the blood, the blood was flowing out of my body.

"C-Cain no!" Ike yelled out, and ran towards the Black Knight himself, erupting into a small battle, which Ike had no chance of winning. I picked myself up, and saw a sword in the distance.

That sword, Ragnell, if I could... I ran for the sword, pulling it out from the ground, and charged at the Knight, I could barely lift it, but Cestia's power will help me out. Ike was thrown to the floor sword strewn aside, and I struggled to heft up Ragnell.

I swung at his back, only for him to deflect the blow with his very own Alondite, and we began a short duel. I swung at him countless times, and he merely deflected all the blows without breaking a sweat, so I began alternating my punches with my sword strikes.

I threw a left hook hitting him on the face, and then spun, the force making my sword blow stronger as it impacted on Alondite. I swung at him with my left more, and the effects were slowly adding together, as my blows were going stronger and increasing in speed.

The Black Knight was stumbling backwards, and I swung at him with Ragnell, damaging his left spauder, and I punched him in the face. The Black Knight stumbled back even further, but then stopped, and swung with such force that a blue shockwave erupted from his blade.

I jumped to the side to dodge it, but the blow hit my right directly, causing the sword to fly out of my hands, thank god for Cestia, it was clear my arm would have blown off if I didn't have them.

I rushed towards the Knight once more, and threw punches at him with my left, my right was in so much pain, I couldn't even lift it. I was clearly tired, and The Black Knight easily defended from my poor assault.

He slashed at my arms, and I could feel the pain screaming out, and my vision was starting to fade. I was thrown to the floor, and he held his blade aimed at my heart, I lost this battle, and for what price?

"You were pitiful, I fail to see what interests the King so much. No matter, your life ends now." He thrusted at me, and I closed my eyes, but the pain didn't come.

I opened my eyes, and Arghelk was there in front of me, and Alondite was sticking out through his side. Ike rushed forward, Ragnell in hand, and surprised the Knight, and managed to cut into his armour, blood gushing out from his already damaged shoulder.

"Ugh. It would seem you get to keep your head, boy, but for how long?" He looked to Greil, who was breathing heavily, and threw Ike aside, grabbing both blades.

"Know now how weak you are Gawain. In due time, I will appear again, and your "family" may end up worse off than you." And with that, a magic circle fluttered into appearance, and he disappeared, without a trace.

"A-Arghelk no!" I ran to his side, and took notice of his wound, it was grievous, and Greil wasn't doing well either. _"Irinis, please! I don't care what may happen just help me, please! I'll do anything!" _A voice emanated into my head, belonging to the illustrious maiden, and she herself was showing signs of worry.

"_Are you prepared to face the consequences, young one?" _and once again, words fluttered into my head, accompanied by a haunting melody, and I began to unconsciously chant out the Galdr.

"_Attukoim aw ihcatukob omugikuokih ureik, Etukawoy ettadusti ategin etukihsubam, Uzarawak arak ih ona, Otok attakanerari in uzarawak omedamusti, Usanah ow ibuy etukihsayuk."_

The song's words left my lips, and I lay there bleeding to death. I couldn't see my surroundings, and my body wouldn't respond.

I felt myself hit the floor, and someone calling out to me, but I couldn't care less, I just wanted to sleep. I hope whatever Galdr that was, was enough to help Greil and Arghelk, I'd never forgive myself if I let them die.

My eyes were fluttering, and eventually I nodded off into the blackness, was this feeling death?

"Guh!" I rose from my fallen position, but I couldn't recognize my surroundings at all, it was pitch black, and I couldn't make out anything.

I rose to stand up, and surprisingly felt no pain, and wandered about aimlessly, all around me was pitch darkness, nothing I can do about that, or can I? I check to see if my ring was still there, sadly it was not.

On that note, my gloves, and vest disappeared also, leaving solely the necklace from Irinis, great. Suddenly, a bright light burst from the blackness, and a door stood in its place, it was a plain old wooden door, old and decrepit, but still durable.

I moved myself towards the door, and opened it, only to find myself looking right at me. "H-Hello, umm?" I say meekly, and the other me looked to me, and moves in his own manner, bending over and smirking at me, what a conceited punk.

"Heh, so you're Dylan? You're not worthy to be chosen, I don't know what Iri's thinking. A runt like you would just end up dying." Pfft, he IS a punk. "Well, aren't I dead?" I ask him, concern apparent on my face, and he held a hand to his face, laughing at me.

"Nope. Iri decided to save you, you lucky, lucky kid. Either way, she'll be the only one supporting you now!" He begins laughing again, and walks away from the door, I now notice what was behind it was a bloody battlefield, with bodies strewn aside.

Looking at the scene left a bad taste in my mouth, and I looked away, the other me turned in my direction, and summoned up a pair of gloves from out of nowhere, and they came flying at me.

"We may not place our fate in you anymore, but we aren't heartless. Think of this as our parting gift, but it's nothing more than an ordinary pair of gloves." I looked down to the gloves and damn, he was right.

He laughed at me, a sinister expression on his face, and proceeded to continue walking away, leaving behind a snide remark. "But you know, when you next wake up, it may be you, but not you entirely...Don't be causing too much trouble for Iri now."

And with that, the door slammed shut, and I could feel myself falling. I screamed out in terror, and closed my eyes, the next I opened it however, was a sight for sore eyes.

"Ah...you're awake!" I looked to the person, who was a petit, purple haired girl, and she looked to me with a small smile.

"I'll go call for Rhys, don't get up just yet." And with that, she left the room, leaving me confused. I chose to ignore her remark, and got up.

I felt different, in more ways than one. I felt a little more heavy torso wise, and my hair was a little longer, I also felt a little odd down there, but I don't think I should go that far. My wounds were gone to say the least, and I didn't feel any pain at all, so I decide to take a stroll.

I grabbed my nearby bag and wore it over my shoulder, and picked up to my sword. It wasn't my sword per see, as it was a steel sword, I guess they changed it for me, although something in the gleam of the sword catches my eye.

There was a girl, a pretty cute girl too, smiling back at me. Odd though, when did people draw girls on swords? Drawings that moved even to- wait, it's moving exactly like me...no...

"Agh!" I screamed out, and in surprise, my voice was oddly high pitched, but I couldn't dwell on that subject, as I fast approached yet another nap, falling to the floor in shock.

The next thing I know, Rhys is shaking me back and forth, and Ike picks me up off the floor, placing me on the bed. I look to the two recognizable faces, and smile at them.

"Hello guys, umm...does any of you have a mirror perhaps?" Yeah, something was definitely odd, my voice was that of a girl's and Ike and Rhys were giving me odd looks.

"Cain...Is that you?" Ike said, a puzzled expression on his face. "Umm, yeah, I'm sure that's who I am, mirror please?" Rhys scurries over to a small bag, and pulls out a mirror handing it to me, and I chance a look at the mirror.

"N-No fucking way!" I screamed out, and to my surprise, the reflection mirrored my movements, proving my assumptions to be true.

The girl I saw was actually, pretty cute, her ha- gah! I shouldn't even be thinking about that! I could already feel myself about to faint again, before Ike grabs me by the shoulder.

"I-I'll go get my father!" and with that he runs out of the room, leaving me and Rhys. "Hey Rhys, am I really...?" He only nods meekly at this. I find myself panicking, feeling myself and glancing at the mirror countless times.

Eventually, the initial shock died down and Greil and Marina burst into the room, looks of worry on their face.

"D-Dylan you're oka-wait a minute, Dylan!" I look at her with a weak smile, not sure what they were thinking. "Y-Yeah, that's me." Greil eyed me curiously, and pinched me on the cheeks, as if checking to see if I was a real person.

"Cain. Who are you really?" I panic, and think through what to say, but this situation is NOT helping out at all.

"_Just tell them you're a spirit charmer."_ Was what Irinis said in my head, my eyes slightly bulged at this, but there was no time to think, so I went along with the idea. "

Ah, I'm not too sure, but I think the reason I'm like this at the moment is because of the spirit inside me."

Greil looked at me, a weird gleam in his eye, and waited for me to continue.

"...All I remember after awaking in the forest was my name, age, and how to speak. Whenever someone brought up a topic in a conversation, I used as little words as I could, since I couldn't even remember what country I was in, or what a Laguz or magic was for that matter. Eventually I started hearing a voice speaking to me, telling me things, and after I questioned what it was, It told me I was a spirit charmer, meaning I had entered a contract in which a spirit enters my body. I had my doubts, but I didn't know any other reason. And this spirit, granted me knowledge on Galdrar, among other things, and then you know what happened with the knight. I chanted a Galdr I didn't know, and passed out."

Everyone was stunned at this odd story, and Marina especially was confounded, constantly checking to see if I was a real person, then decided to break the silence.

"W-Wow, that's so unreal, but I know of spirit charmers, to say the least." Greil nods at this, glancing at me again.

"Yeah, me too, although this is quite surreal. Rhys had just walked out of the room for a couple of minutes, and when he returned, there was a girl on the floor, unconscious."

I only nod at this, unable to say anything else, although Ike on the otherhand, was never a roundabout kind of guy.

"So...This spirit turned you into a girl?" I laugh at this, odd statement, although I knew it to be true. "I guess so, she's not saying anything to me at the moment though."

Greil again, looks to me, although his hardened look had softened, I just now noticed, his right hand was missing, and all there was a bandaged lump.

"Greil, your arm!" I say, alarm in my voice, and he chuckles at this. "Well, it's only a minor loss, compared to you or that Arghelk."

I jump up at hearing the wyvern's name. "Is he alright!" Marina responded to this however, putting a hand on my shoulder, damn, I'm shorter than her now, well whatever, Arghelk might be...

"He's just fine. He hasn't awoken yet though, but his wounds are fully healed, your Galdr was the reason." Ike speaks up after this. "Yeah, that song of yours healed Father and Arghelk just like that! Although, it was too late for Father's arm..."

"Well, thanks for saving my life Cain. I can't imagine how Mist would feel if I had just died like that."

I smile at him in response, eliciting a positive expression in return. "W-Well, you're welcome."

Man, I can't get used to how my voice sounds, it's so cute! Marina looked at me, a slight smirk on her face, I bet she's laughing at me on the inside.

"Well, are you feeling okay?" "Yeah, great, I guess." I say in response, my hands moving about to show what I mean.

"Alright, so you're fine enough to be moving about it seems. Greil and I have some things to discuss, I'll catch up with you later!" I wave at her as she leaves the room with Greil, leaving the other two to come up and question me.

"Wow Cain, I still can't believe it's you!" I chuckle at Ike's statement, patting him on the shoulder. "It's still me on the inside!" Rhys acknowledges this, nodding his head in response. "It's unusual though, most of the time, it's magic users that initiate a contract with spirits."

I tilt my head questioningly at this, my hair flowing to the side. "I can't remember any of that though..." And our conversation continued in that manner, eventually me and Ike left the room, and he offered to take me to where Arghelk was.

We strolled towards a nearby enclosure, and there lay the wyvern, not a scratch on him, slumbering about peacefully.

"Ahh...He's fine." I smile at this, and Ike does so too. "He also saved my Father's life, I have both of you to thank." I patted him on the head, and we left him there to sleep, and we walked back to the castle, planning to get something to eat, although we bumped into a certain kitty.

"Oh hello Lethe." Ike waved at her, and I backed up behind him, hoping to hide my face from her. She glanced at Ike, and then as if god torturing my existence, me.

"Hello, human. Who's the little one hiding behind you?" damn, she noticed me.

I moved forward, and stood there, not saying a word, she checked me out from head to toe, until her eyes widened suddenly.

"Wait a minute, you can't be...Dylan!" Ike looked at her meekly, hand on his head. "Yeah...it's Dylan, a spirit he's contracted to did this...Whatever it is."

She looked to Ike, before glancing at me, bursting into laughter. "Ahahaha! Look at you, you're nothing but a girl!"

I could feel my face flushing at this, and I punched her in the shoulder. "H-Hey! I know it's weird, but at least I'm prettier than you!" She was still laughing, not even responding to me, and I stormed off, Ike following me shortly.

"...Now that was funny." He said, a small chuckle escaping his lips, and I'm still embarrassed at this. "I don't look weird, do I?"

"Not at all, you look fine, pretty even." I punch Ike in the shoulder in response to that comment. "I'm a dude Ike!" He chuckled at me, and we walked into the mess hall and sat down.

There were no people in the area, to my relief, and Ike went up to get me some grub. He came back with a plate of meatloaf, placing it down in front of me.

"Here. It's Mist's Magical Meatloaf. I have to say, it's not as sketchy as it sounds." I try a bite, and amazingly, it was actually good, although I didn't expect it to be bad or anything, I just wasn't particularly fond of meatloaf.

Ike got up, and began to walk off. "I think I'll go inform everyone about what's happened, I am the new leader replacing Father after all."

I turn to Ike, meatloaf in my mouth; I chewed it down, and swallowed.

"Congratulations! Just don't make it sound weird or anything, I'm already embarrassed as it is." He laughs, and walks away, leaving me to eat in silence.

With nothing to do, save eating, I tried getting into contact with Irinis. _"Hey Iri, you there?"_ I chewed on my meatloaf, and took another bite, it was really good!

"_Yes, I'm here young one. I guess you're looking for an explanation?" _I nod vehemently, _"Please do."_ She breathed in, and began to talk.

"_You died out there Dylan, you weren't supposed to, but you did. Something definitely is changing in this universe, but I can't say what."_ My eyes bulged at hearing of my death, although it wasn't that surprising, it just hit me, knowing I died what, twice?

"_I had to expend all of my magic reserves in order to revive you, it's what we call Spiritual Revitalization. It required me to pool out my magic into yours, mingling with your essence, in order to revive your nearly dissipating spirit. This is a side effect of your revival, although it will last a while I'm afraid."_

I finished the meatloaf, licking my lips, and got up to return the kitchenware.

"_One more thing, what happened with the other gods?" _She remained silent for a bit, but then spoke up. _"The Elder Gods, have abandoned you...We are proud beings, and always place ourselves first. Every single one of us broke into an argument about your situation, and every one decided to prepare for the coming crisis themselves."_

"_What crisis?" _I question her. _"It is when the Goddess of Order, who overpowers us, awakens. You know of what happens."_

I silently agree with her, and walk into the kitchen, there lay Mist, washing some dirty dishes . I place the dish on a table, and make to scurry out, but notice a batch of cookies laying there, I snatch one, and begin nibbling on it, and boy, it was delicious!

"Enjoying that cookie there, are you?" I jumped backwards in response, scared out of my boots from that sudden voice. I turned to see it was Mist, who was grinning at me deviously.

"So how does it feel, to be a girl Dylan?" I blushed in embarrassment at this, and I turned away nibbling on the cookie, and walked out of the room. Mist however, was following me now, and sniggering every so often.

"You're so pretty Dylan, would you like to try on some of my clothes?" "N-No thank you!" I stammer, and walked ahead faster, only for her to speed up. I turned a corner, and bumped into Oscar, falling to the floor.

"Sorry!" I say in response, and pick myself up. I held out a hand to him, and he took it, lifting it up. "Thank you, huh, are you new here?" I stammer in place, not sure of what to say, and Mist moves in front of me, gaining Oscar's attention. "She's a new recruit, her name's Cana, a myrmidon." I bowed to Oscar, and he did so in return, shaking hands as if meeting for the first time.

"Nice to meet you Cana, well I have some business to attend to with Ike, see you later Cana, Mist." I nod at him, and Mist waves him off, a smile still apparent on her face. "How about those clothes Dylan?" I glared at her, refusing to get upset again, and grunted.

"Hmph! Like I said, no thank you!" Ironically, my pants began to sag. I quickly pulled them up, tightening them as tight as possible, she was right, my clothes were loose.

She chuckled at me asking again if I needed a change of wardrobe, which I strongly denied and we walked into the courtyard, where Mia and Rolf were training.

"Hey Mia, how's your training?" She stopped swinging her sword, and glanced at Mist. "Great! Who's the girl?" she said, glancing at me, well mostly the sword strapped to my side. "A sparring partner!" Mist chuckled at this, and pushed me forward, joining Rolf to the side, who was now looking to see what was going on.

"Alright then girly, prepare yourself!" I pulled out my steel sword, hefting it in both my arms, it wasn't really that heavy, but I wouldn't be able to use it one handed, so I prepared myself, holding the sword poised at her head.

She herself was holding an iron sword, and moved towards me slowly. I went ahead and decided to strike first, swinging at her horizontally with quite a bit of force backing that swing. She parried it, albeit stumbling back slightly, and slashed at me in return.

I quickly backstepped to avoid the attack. Even though I'm like this, I'm a lot lighter now! And it was apparent too, as we both exchanged blows at a fast pace, neither of us hitting our opponent yet, I swung at her again, and she parried it once more, causing me to drop the sword.

I quickly dodge her incoming slash, and jump back, avoiding the wide arc. I looked to my hands, which were covered by dark brown gloves, seemingly normal, but had what seemed to be iron knuckles, providing a mean punch when needed.

I charged at her, and threw a left jab, which she dodged, so I threw a right hook in retaliation, hitting her shoulder and causing her to stumble. I sweep at her feet with a low kick, hoping to trip her, but she leaped to the side, swiping at me.

I ducked, avoiding her attack and threw an uppercut, grazing her chin slightly, and she fell backwards, losing her balance. I loomed in closer to her, and aimed my fist at her head. "Looks like I win." I held my hand out to her, and she took it.

She was eyeing me now, from head to toe, a funny expression on her face. "D-D-Dylan!" I chuckle at her, patting her on the head. Looks like it's going to be a long day...

_Author's Note: So here's Chapter 10, I hope you enjoyed it! I originally meant for Cain to actually die here, and have him appear in an entirely different location, but I changed it, from a suggestion from my twelve year-old sister, who was like "Let Irinis save her, and transform him into a girl!" and after changing my original idea, he did become a girl, hopefully fun times in the future thanks to this odd predicament. Please review if you have the time, and feel free to get at me if there's something bad about my writing, come on, I can take it!_


	11. Chapter 11

_Chapter 11: A Step Forward_

"...And with that, I concede leadership of the mercenaries to Ike, seeing as I am unfit to lead in my current state. I hope you'll all help Ike to continue his path on becoming a great mercenary."

We all nodded in response to Greil's speech, as indicated, Ike was the new leader of the Greil Mercenaries, although it wasn't surprising or anything.

Ike stepped forward and looked out to all of us, preparing to speak at the urging of his father, he was nervous, and clearly unprepared for being put on the spot like that, but spoke despite this.

"I'm honoured at being chosen to replace Father; I hope that you all will help me along the way, as I am still inexperienced." He bowed meekly, a hand to his head, an awkward smile on his face, but we all clapped for him.

It was decided that we move out today, and Lethe and Mordecai were to escort us to the castle. It'd be fine of course, other than Lethe mocking me at every turn, even now, to be exact.

"So Dylan, how are you holding up? Not tired from all this work are you?" She placed a hand on my shoulder, poking at my face, god, why am I so fucking short!

"...Need I remind you I kicked your ass twice, and seeing as how I'm a girl, it'd make your loss look so much more pitiful." I smirked at her, and moved her hand off me, and she was already getting irritated, and in a couple of seconds, I suspect she'll push me to the fl-

"Oww!" I find myself on the floor, although it was expected, but for some reason, it actually hurt.

"Oh come on Dylan, are you that weak now?" I rubbed my shoulder from the impact, I guess my body is still hurting from the previous night's battle, or I'm just frailer.

Either way, this development was going to be a pain.

"You should train some more Cain; you don't wanna be making any rookie mistakes!" It was Boyd who said that, an evil grin on his face, and he was tailing me alongside Lethe, leaving me struggling to get away from the evil duo.

"C-Could you stop following me? It's creepy." Boyd laughed at me, and continued stalking my ass until we arrived at the entrance, throwing in such remarks as "You should practice you're swings!" or "You might lose your head with that attitude rookie!" and I was fast considering beating the snot out of them, if I still could at least.

Eventually, I got them off my tail, and we all marched south towards the coast. I walked alone, trying to avoid the others, since well, it was kind of embarrassing.

At the sign of flapping wings, I turned to see an armoured wyvern fluttering about, and he landed beside me.

"A-Arghelk! You're okay!" He grunted and glanced at me, snorting in my face.

"_Kid, I don't know what the fuck you did, but you kinda look a liiiittle too feminine now."_

He snorted again, chuckling at me as I try to ignore his ridicules, and we make our way about. _"Hey Arghelk, do you know of what happened?"_

He looked at me, scratching his neck while glaring at me.

"_Naw, I don't give a shit, although that girl spirit's told me some things." _

"_You can communicate with her!"_ I say, odd how no one ever mentions the important stuff unless I plead them.

"_Yeah, ever since I woke up a little while ago. She tells me that you'll be like that for a couple days, and considerably weaker, as your body is trying to piece itself back together."_

"_I see." _I tell him, and I'm slightly curious at what the god's are playing at, well that weird me at least. Arghelk told me a couple other thing's she mentioned, like how this isn't really my body, but her magic resonating with my essence, and other crap, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it, and it didn't help that the lizard couldn't either.

She wasn't responding when I called her, probably busy, being a divine being and all, but I have to say, this is a pain in the ass. I sighed heavily, and Mordecai walked over, concern on his face.

"What's wrong Dylan? Are you feeling down?" Yeah, Greil also mentioned my abnormal state during his speech, and now the whole world can laugh at me.

"I'm fine, just a little frustrated..." He looked to me understandably, rubbing his beard with pro beard rubbing skills, and patted me on the head.

"Do not worry, this no big problem." And dismissed himself; heading over to a sniggering Lethe. We continued walking, until we eventually hit a nearby beach, and stopped at the discretion of the Laguz.

I looked to my nearby surroundings, a beach accompanied by two houses, and a decrepit fort in the far distance, cliff and forest covering the area. Although, when I took a closer look to the fortress, I notice a couple of heads moving about.

"Ike, over there!" We all looked to the figures, and they were clad in black armour, and as one of them noticed us, called for his allies. Everyone drew their weapons in preparation, and Greil opted to sit out this one.

"Ike, I'll get Mist and the other's to safety, you handle the small fry." And with Ike's approval, moved the merchants and children away from the battle. Marina turned to me, both blades gleaming in her hands, an expression of concern on her face.

"Dylan, are you sure you're up for fighting?" I pull out my steel sword in response, the weight still somewhat surprising for me.

"Of course!" and the Daein soldiers charged for our position. I decided to head for the beach and prevent them from attacking us on our side, followed by Marina, Boyd, Mia, and Soren.

Arghelk had taken to the skies, and circled above, scouting out the situation. I could hear a short exchange of words behind me, and shortly after, Mist and Rolf ran up to join us.

"We'll be fighting too Dylan!" Rolf said with confidence, while Mist herself had a steely expression, most likely due to both kids always being sidelined.

"Well alright, just stick with me." And our group moved ahead, encountering a couple soldiers on the beach.

"Hah! Look, it's just women and children, easy pickings for us!" Marina scoffed at them, and held her swords poised to strike.

"I'd like to see you try, idiot!" and our group charged at the small group of soldiers. Soren cast a spell, knocking a soldier to the ground while Rolf shot him dead.

Mia and Boyd were attempting to get close to a mage, who was spewing thunder about. Marina and I were engaged with three soldiers, and I was attacking the axe wielder, while Mist was beside Rolf, sword in hand.

I slashed at the fighter, flicking him on the arm, and kicking him in the gut, causing him to falter back, although he recovered fast and swung at me, knocking me to the floor.

I jumped back to my feet, slashing countless times, and drew blood from a strike to his chest. In retaliation, he punched me in the face, and I was thrown back, and he charged at me.

I thrusted my weapon at him before he could strike and he fell to the floor, as dead as possibly possible with deaths.

I turned to Marina, who had just finished engaging a spearman, and began assaulting the next one. Mist came up to me, heal staff in hand, and healed my bruised face with a smile.

I silently thanked her, and ran off to attack an incoming soldier. I dodge his thrust, and swatted his lance aside, rushing in to slash at his chest, although it bounces off his shield. I jump back before I could get smashed in the face, and slashed again, knocking the shield from his arm.

I kicked him where you should never be kicked, and he coiled to the floor in pain. I thrust at his head with my blade, finishing him off, and miraculously, dodge an incoming thunder spell.

Looking to the source, Mia and Boyd were preoccupied with pirates invading from the sea, there were at least three of them, and another who looked to be their leader, his clothing and style differentiating him from the others.

I paid no attention to it though, as I tried to close in to the mage in question, his swift movements leaping about the sandy surface, instinctively avoiding every single one of my slashes.

I chased him down, and eventually hit him on the side with my trusty sword, knocking him to the floor and dropping his spell book. I kicked him in the face, sending him to an undoubtedly painful slumber, and ran back towards Marina to assist her.

"Marina, need any help!" I uttered, a little fatigued from the combat, she had just finished off her opponent however, his limp body staining the white sand. "I'm good here; let's go help out Boyd and Mia!"

At her urging, we moved out towards the coastal houses, Mist, Rolf, and Soren rejoining with Ike's group, who were having a little trouble pushing towards the occupied fort.

Marina had engaged with a soldier near a house, moving about with little effort and clearly overwhelming him. Boyd on the other hand was struggling to hold his ground with his weathered foe, naturally unsuited to fighting in the water.

"H-Hey Dylan, lend me a hand over here! This bastard's a slippery one!"

"I'm on it!" I yell in response, and charged at the scallywag, sword in hand, and swung at his feet. He leapt back in response, and Boyd moved in with his axe, so I circled behind him.

"Yar har ho! Ye land legs won't do ye good here! This be my territory lass!" And he splashed some water at me, hitting me directly in the eyes, and I recoiled from the shock.

"Yer wide open lass!" and I could hear him moving towards me. He avoided a swing from Boyd's axe, and flung his axe at me.

"What the fuck!" I dropped to the floor, soaking myself in the salty water, but avoiding a shockingly fast approached second death.

I got up, and began slashing at him, although he was strong, he wasn't that witty, as his weapon was quite far from his hand, where it could actually do any good, and I slashed his chest wide open, and he fell to the ocean floor without a word, thank god, I hate pirates, it's all about ninjas these days.

On that note, I snuck up on a pirate who was preoccupied with Mia, and gutted him from behind, a gruff cry coming from the man, and I threw him off my blade.

"Thanks girly!" Mia said appreciatively, although I could do without that last comment.

"Umm, you do remember I'm a guy right?" She smirked at me as we ran back to the group, Marina joining us after finishing her business.

"Dylan, this Laguz handed me a staff, give this to Mist or Rhys." And she handed me the staff, which was adorned with a sparkly green gem.

I also went over to pick up the magic tome from earlier, alongside his gold purse, and placed it in my bag. You never know with this mercenary business.

"Tch. My arms bleeding." An injured Boyd said, a gash on his left arm was bleeding out. I quickly pooled a vulnerary from my bag, handing it to him.

"Here! Don't use it all though, it's mine after all." He looked at me taking the vulnerary and applying some of it to his wound, and it healed up quite nice.

"Thanks, Mr. Stingy Merc!" He said, teasing my money saving tactics, and he ran off before I could rage at him for theft. We caught up to Ike's group who was nearing the fort, although attempting to bypass an array of soldiers, Ike called out for us, and we regrouped to his position, trapping the enemy in a pincer formation.

We finished them off, and we approached Ike, awaiting his orders.

"Anything happen on your end Dylan?" He wiped the blood off his face, and called Soren over, and I recounted the battle.

"It wasn't much, the area wasn't well defended, and we took care of a couple pirates on the way." Ike nodded in response, checking on the rest of the mercenaries like a good leader would do. Heh, I expected as much.

I greeted Soren and handed the tome from earlier to him, who after examining it, passed it right back.

"...Thanks...But hand this to the other mage, this isn't my preferred choice to use." And with Soren, that's the closest you'll ever get to "Thanks anyways!"

I passed off the staff to Rhys, who instantly recognized it as a recover staff, and took to checking up on the others. I quickly found the other mage, a purple haired girl who was staggering about at the back of the group, a pained expression on her face.

It was Ilyana, without a doubt.

"Um...Miss, are you alright over there?" She glanced over to me, a weak look on her face; although it changed pretty quickly once she got a hold of what I was hiding, as expected of the girl...

"T-That smell...Aah, it smells so delicious..." She whipped through my bag with cunning speed, and pulled out my treasured bag of cookies which Mist had given me earlier.

"H-Hey! My cookies!" she ignored my outburst however, and continued munching on the cookies, despite the fact that we were still on the battlefield.

"Um...Well miss, I found a magic tome earlier, go ahead and take it." I handed the tome to her, and she quickly inspected it, and placed it in her bag situated on her back.

"Thank you, mister...I'm Ilyana...Thanks for the meal." I bowed in modesty, and headed towards the main group, who was starting to assault the fort.

"My name's Cain by the way, don't be forgetting it now!" and I ran off towards the group, who were overpowering the enemy with numbers alone, although the archers and mages atop the fort's walls were raining down a storm.

In response, Rolf was attempting to shoot at them, with assistance from Soren and the now arriving Ilyana, and Arghelk, who was mainly quiet most of the fight, broke through to the top of the walls, accompanied by a Pegasus knight, and finished off those enemies.

Ike on the other hand, had just ended his short brawl with the enemy leader, a grievous wound lulling him to his death.

"Guh! S-Stupid mercenaries...You should be siding with us against those beasts..."

Ignoring him, we all cheered out; we were victorious! We entered the fort to see if there were any stragglers left, and there were none to be found, I did happen to find a somewhat large sum of gold, and left behind weapons.

Now If I want to get some of the good stuff, and ditch this heavy sword, I'm going to need some gold, and selling weapons is going to earn me a steady income for sure.

I grabbed as many as I could in one go, and headed towards the merchant caravan, who I had yet to introduce myself to.

On the way, I bumped into a somewhat moody Lethe, who suffered a small gash on her leg.

"Oh. Hello Dylan. It seems you did good today, for a human. I on the other hand, was a little careless..." I scrimmaged through my bag pulling out a used vulnerary. Since Boyd had my newer vulnerary, I had to use my old crusty one.

I dropped the weapons on the floor momentarily, and applied some of the ointment to her wound, healing up in a matter of seconds.

"There, good as new!" I said, and resumed my walk towards the merchant caravan, leaving a flustered Lethe to fume.

"H-Hey wait for me!" and she followed me to the caravan, where I spoke to a gruff old man.

"Hello! Are you in charge of buying weapons?" I asked.

He turned to me, slightly perturbed at the sight of me holding an abundance of weapons, and brought me over to the caravan, inside was a blonde haired individual.

"Hi there! I heard you would like to sell something? I'm Jorge, in charge of buying goods." I greeted him and laid down my weapons, being a couple lances and swords, and he inspected them of any wear and tear.

"Greedy human..." Lethe muttered, watching me while I was bargaining with Jorge, and I ignored her for the most part, although flicking her on the head ticked her off.

"Hmm...It'll amount to about two thousand one hundred and fi- wait, why are you lying on the floor?"

I brushed the dirt off of me as I got up. "No reason." and thanked him, taking my gold and heading over to the gruff man, a look of confusion apparent on Jorge's face as we left.

"Um, old man, I'd like to buy some weapons!" he turned to me with a jovial expression, laughing off my comment while stroking his beard with skill.

Heck, his beard stroking skills could knock Halimond's out of first place!

"Haha old? I'm not senile yet girl. So what'll you have?" I quickly inspected the various assortments of weapons strewn about the caravan, easily deciding on what I wanted, so I asked him for a slim sword and daggers, and he brought out a steel dagger and knives, setting them down on the table.

"That'll be seventeen hundred girl, including the sword."He said. I pooled out the gold from my bag, and handed it to him.

Counting it to be exact, he handed me the weapons. Strapping them to my belt, we left the caravan, and joined up with Ike and Greil, who were in the middle of a discussion with Soren and Titania.

"Hey Ike, when will we be moving out?" I asked him, turning to us as he uttered his response, while Soren and Titania were debating quite loudly about something.

"We'll be leaving for the castle immediately. Get everyone ready Cain." I agreed, and left to speak to the others, leaving Lethe to chat it up with the gang.

Strolling about the castle, I quickly noticed that it was in bad shape. The interior was cracked and moss was strewn about, but it showed signs of occupation, obviously, albeit the fact that it was currently empty.

After passing on the news to the entirety of the mercenaries, I found myself sitting outside the fort, waiting for the rest to get themselves ready. With nothing to do, I tried contacting Irinis, hopefully she'd respond this time.

"_Hey Iri you there? How long will I be like this, also, why is it that I'm feeling really tired as of late?" _There was no obvious response for a while, and I sat under a looming tree, the rest of the group was pretty much ready to go.

"Hey you, where's Sir Greil? I have business with him." Turning around, I immediately noticed a suspicious man hiding out behind a nearby tree, blending in the shade quite well actually. Stepping out, I could see that it was everyone's favourite assassin, Volke, looking as badass as ever.

"...Weren't you fighting with us at Melior before?" I asked him, a slightly humorous tone in my voice.

"Yeah I was. Weren't you a boy before?" He said smugly, and I immediately clammed up. Damn, I'm never going to live this down.

"...Greil should be with Ike inside the castle." He nodded to me, and disappeared just as fast, running the opposite way to the castle, but I'm not in the position to question ninjas.

Everyone was ready to leave, and we made towards the Castle and Elincia hastily, as we had wasted enough time already, the sun sinking out of view. It was pretty dark, but we were still able to navigate the gloomy forests well enough, thanks to the help of the Laguz and their night vision.

In the last battle, we had recruited a Begnion Pegasus knight, who I recognized as Marcia without too much trouble. I introduced myself to her, and quickly slipped away to avoid any of her food related phrases before I combusted from her cuisine focused mayhem.

From an honest man's point of view, our group was weird beyond compare, a mercenary company abundant with oddballs and rider-less wyverns, not to mention a gender confused dimension travelling boy...or girl.

Well, the rest of the day continued like this, and after hours and hours of trudging about the bushes, we had finally arrived at Castle Gallia. Greil immediately wandered off to chat amongst the King, and the rest of us were given rooms to sleep in.

Thanks to the castle being frigging huge, I was able to get a room to myself, and I quickly fled to said room. As I am at the moment, I'm too embarrassed to show myself to Elincia, so I put that thought out of my head, and drifted into a well deserved sleep.

I was dreaming, or so I thought I was, as I found myself atop a strangely familiar tower, furniture and many trinkets lay about the area, and it was here that I found myself face to face with the one and only Irinis.

"...It's been quite a while, young one. I'm sure you have many questions to ask, so go ahead." She smiled at me, looking as beautiful as when I last saw her, albeit more delicate, If I could describe it as such.

"Well, You know...How long will I be in this state? And does this have anything to do with me being weaker?" Taking a deep breath, she explained to me the effects of my revival.

"Being brought back to life is no easy feat Dylan. It was only possible by my intervention, and that had weakened the both of us significantly. I had lost most of my magical strength, as it was encased into your body in order to stabilize your declining magic reserves." She replied nonchalantly.

"So...I'm basically like this until my body can recover its own magical reserves, and if I were somehow back in my normal form, what would happen?"

"You'd die obviously." She said bluntly, to a comedic, yet frightful effect.

"There are two ways to go about here from now on. Either you bide your time in this form to recover the strength needed to survive...Or develop a certain...skill."

"Skill?" I said, her vague phrasing already piquing my interest.

"Yes, although a forbidden art, by manipulating the properties of human essence, you can maintain your original form and many other things." Irinis moved towards me, and reached out for the trinket around my neck, glowing as it made contact with her.

"Here, this should be able to allow you to interact with it. It is up to you however to grasp the technique necessary." I fiddled with the greenish pendant, and could feel a warmth emanating from within, a strange feeling washing over me.

"So...I'll figure it out when the time arises, is what you mean." Taking her nod as a yes, I stumbled about the pseudo-observatory, which was very much a divine setting.

"Iri, what exactly are you? You've told me you were a servant to the Elder Gods, but your relationship with the others seems...Well, horrible." She grimaced slightly, although did a good job of hiding it.

"For lack of an absolute truth, I can tell you I am a servant to the Elder Gods, but also among their ranks, our history is sketchy at best, something you shouldn't delve too deep into..." In fear of losing her support I quickly dropped the subject, moving on to more questions.

"Also, about the state of Tellius, what will happen now that Greil's alive?" Yet again, she frowned slightly, quickly answering my question.

"I can only say that it may be unwell to keep Greil along this mission. It may not seem reasonable, but with him alive, the Black Knight will constantly be hounding on your group, along with others involved with his past. I wish I could assist you, but I haven't the strength myself, and I don't think the gods are in the mood." I pondered at this thought.

Sure, Greil's alive and all, but it may be best to part ways with him. I just have to convince him to stay at the castle or something.

"...I guess if he won't leave, it may jeopardize our mission. I'll consider the options." After sorting out my questions, I quickly found myself back in my room, the sun just beginning to rise into the sky. With a yawn, I jumped up out of the bed, and grabbing my bag, decided to wander about.

Deciding to look for Arghelk, I headed for the open garden, the most likely place for him to sleep, and headed towards there. The castle was still silent, albeit the cheerful sounds of the wildlife all around, and barely anyone was up, mainly Laguz patrolling the castle, who generally, avoided contact with Beorc. I wonder...If this essence thing is gathered from people, it must mean their soul, or aura, for the truest sense of the term.

Kinda like affinity or something, maybe...although I wonder what kind of things I'll be able to accomplish with it. Arriving at the garden, there was Arghelk, asleep, although not alone as Greil and Caineghis were muttering about in the corner.

"Oh, good morning Cain." Greil said, taking notice of my presence, and I moved towards them, greeting him and the king.

"Greil, Your Majesty...As you can see, I'm like this at the moment." Caineghis inspected my new appearance, slightly startled at the changes apparent since my last visit, although he was more intrigued then suspicious.

"Hahaha! You've changed quite a bit Dylan, Greil's stories proved true after all." He said, a humorous smile on his face.

"I take it you've filled His Majesty and Elincia in on the details?" I directed to Greil.

"Yeah, and they were intrigued too. The princess was quite eager to see you, but we told her to leave you to her rest." I nodded, and seeing where this was going, moved the topic on to what I discussed with Irinis.

"It's been bothering me since that night, but why did the Black Knight attack you Greil?" His soft expression turned into a sterner one, and he took his time thinking, before finally answering.

"...It's something that doesn't have to do with you kid, sorry." I sighed heavily. Looks like it's time to put on the 'ol prosecutor's badge.

"It does, if it will affect Elincia in any matter. If you were involved with the Daein Rider, the Black Knight, that either means that you are affiliated with the knight himself, or his country, Daein. Both options also point you into having some past in Daein...and I'm sure the Mad King himself had called you by another name."

I stated this with confidence, hoping to pressure Greil into revealing this willingly, which at the moment was slowly proving to be true.

"Cain, you're sharp, to say the least. I can tell you that I was affiliated with Daein, before fleeing to Gallia alongside my beloved. I can't see why the knight may be after me."

I continued with my "cross-examination" and decidedly placed a few choice words in.

"...But he did go after you. He also called you his teacher, and along with Ashnard, both called you Gawain. I slightly remember hearing the name before, but it doesn't matter at the moment. All that does is what is it that you're hiding that he wants, and will hound you for it?" Aha, Take that! He was clearly surprised at my memory of the events, and even Caineghis was clearly disgruntled.

Even with my powers gone, I could notice a person shuffling about near a tree, a sword glinting about from the shadows. Said person was obviously eavesdropping in on the conversation, so I called out to the figure.

"If you want to hear this, you should come out from behind that tree, Ike." To no one's surprise, it was a matter of fact, Ike that popped out from behind cover, what a lucky guess.

"...I'd like to hear this myself Father." Greil, who was backed up in a corner, gave in, and told us of this possession, which would be obvious to anyone who's at least played Radiant Dawn.

"He...The knight, came after a medallion. Lehran's Medallion, to be exact, and it supposedly houses the spirit of the dark god, Yune." He paused of a second, unsure of what he felt like exposing, but I didn't really need any of that info in the first place.

"That's all I need to know at the moment, however...I still need Elincia's safety sorted out, and this medallion will cause unending strife if we are constantly hounded by Daein."

Caineghis spoke up after keeping to himself for the majority of the conversation, more wary of me after seeing my interrogation of Greil.

"That's already been settled. The princess will be escorted by the mercenaries, and of course her personal escort, to Begnion by ship. This matter of the medallion however, troubles me..."

Greil went on to explain the medallion to us, and of its effects when held by those not holding the spirit of order. He also left out his murdering of the village, and briefly shared his view on the Black Knight's goal, although I wasn't aware of some details myself.

"So, Ashnard is hoping to release this dark god, held in the medallion currently in Mist's possession...and they currently believe you to be holding it personally..?" Greil nodded at this, his expression lighter after lightening his burdens themselves.

"Yes, this is why I will be staying in Gallia, as I discussed with the King yesterday. I hope you don't cause a commotion about this again Ike." Ike shook his head in response to his father, maybe I should have joined this conversation yesterday...It'd have been more convenient if anything.

"No, I understand Father...I'll lead the mercenaries in your absence alongside Cain and Marina."

After discussing the details of our new situation, we finally sorted out the many aspects of this new travelling arrangement.

"Ike, Cain, you will both lead the mercenaries in my stead and accompany princess Elincia on her goal. I'll stay in Gallia, where we have the highest chances of fooling Daein into attacking Gallia instead of your group, thus allowing your safe passage to Begnion. There you must speak with the Empress; she will help you in more ways than I can." Ike and I both nodded grudgingly, the new responsibilities weighing heavily on Ike's shoulders, and I just wasn't in a chipper mood since I woke up a changed man...girl.

"You can count on us Father!" With that, the cross examination was over, and Greil a guilty defendant, so to speak. I moved over towards the weary Arghelk who had recently woken up. The King disappeared into the castle, while Ike and Greil were going over the leader's responsibilities.

"_So Argy, were you listening to the conversation?" _I said, and Arghelk thrashed about as if knocking out the drowsiness in his head.

"_Most of it at least. I guess we'll be heading for Begnion, ugh..." _I looked questioningly at him, his irritation apparent as he snorted in annoyance.

"_Anything wrong with Begnion?" _I asked.

"_Yeah...I served there before fleeing sometime ago. The snotty bastards acted all high and might; I'm surprised I didn't knock their heads straight off."_

_... _And he continued rambling about the snotty bastards, who I could only assume were the senators, and snotty bastards they were indeed...well from Radiant Dawn's point of view anyway.

After throwing him a leftover snack, I walked towards the father-son pair, who were now flying at each other, all in good sport of course.

"Graagh!" Ike was knocked to the floor, and Greil towered over him, wooden sword held poised in his good hand, the other limp in an Auron-like fashion.

"Not bad Ike. You've room for improvement though." Greil glanced towards me, and tossed his stick at me.

"Your turn now Cain. Let's see how well you can do." I fumbled the sword, but caught hold of it, and held it towards a now battle ready Ike, confidently prepared in his signature stance. I held my arm out to my side; sword aimed at the ground, and began pacing about the steadfast warrior.

"Alright Ike, show me what you got!" I charged from his side, swiping at him vertically, and he blocked it easily. I quickly drew my weapon back, and kicked at his hand, missing it entirely.

He slashed at me, and nailed me on my shoulder, but I slipped out fast and punched him in the gut with my empty handed left.

"Ugh!" He grunted in pain, and withdrew from my position, resuming his stance.

"Alright I'll go about this seriously." He rushed at me and swung with force. I dodged to the side, I couldn't even dream of attempting to block his attacks. I swung a ferocious hit of my own, only for it to be evaded by the surprisingly agile Ike.

All in all, we were even at the moment, and Ike was a heck of an opponent. Not as strong as Boyd however, and maybe not as speedy as Marina, but all in all a good fighter.

"C'mon Ike...let's end this already." I said, attempting to provoke the otherwise stoic swordsman, and he readied his sword in return.

"This is it then!" I charged at Ike, and narrowly dodged his slash to my shoulder. He pushed at me with his free hand, and I stumbled back; but dove in and threw an uppercut to his chin, and if you know anything about uppercuts...

"SHORYUKEN!" My blow connected, and the sheer force was enough to lift Ike off his feet slightly, and he fell backwards, the blow significantly injuring him.

Nonetheless, he got back to his feet, and charged at me. I blocked his initial strikes, and dodged his low sweep, but he elbowed me in the gut, and then rammed me to the floor. Immediately after, I found myself blocking Ike's monster assault; the impact hurting my arms.

"Guh...Ike, you're too rough!" I shouted out, my voice barely reaching him throughout his loud grunts. I tripped him with a kick, and punched him in the gut. The next thing that happened however, was him grabbing me by the wrist, and twisting me.

His wooden weapon was held directly in front of my neck. Damnit.

"Okay that's enough. Good job both of you!" Greil walked up to us with an impressed expression. Ike released me from his grip, and we both laughed, despite our countless bruises.

"You're amazing Cain! If you weren't the way you were, you would have defeated me."

"N-no way Ike! It was all you...I'm much speedier as I am now too, so I wouldn't have been able to pull of those manoeuvres otherwise." Greil came up and patted Ike on the back, ruffling his hair; I could only laugh in return.

"Well whatever it is, both of you aren't half bad. I'm sure you'll both grow into great fighters...I think you should find a mentor though Cain. You've got talent, but your skills are still unpolished. If you want, I could get someone to help you."

Training huh...No doubt it's Marina. Well, I do want to be useful in this adventure.

"Alright then, I accept. Although I'm also unofficially helping some other kids too..." We all laughed at this, and Greil left to take care of some matters, and the nearby lizard decided to get some practice himself.

Ike and I were just chatting amongst the garden, Ike's actually a good guy, well by good, I mean not as blunt and unapproachable as he seemed in Radiant Dawn.

"...and maybe we should find some more help on this. I'm not quite sure our mercenary company is good enough to handle the Daein army alone."

"We can't handle them alone Ike. It would be best to recruit some of the Crimean soldiers, but it'd be suicide if we tried returning there unprepared." Ike pulled out a map from his pocket, covering the regions around Crimea's borders, and we checked it out.

"Yeah you're right. But maybe we can get some other mercenaries, or others who want to help if we encounter any while heading to Port Toha."

I glanced at the map, and there weren't many nearby towns near the place.

"Why not check out Canteus Castle then?"

"Whoah!" I fell back in surprise at the sudden intrusion of a certain blue haired cat. He was poking at Ike, who had jumped back a bit at my outburst.

"Haha, sorry there. Although, I think you should consider it. As of recent, its Daein occupiers have been imprisoning Crimean vigilantes there. If it's manpower you're looking for, it's there." He pointed to the castle on the map.

It was a good while from here, but close to the Port in general, so it didn't sound half bad.

"I'll have to ask Titania and Soren about that. I'll see you two later then." Ike left the scene, and Ranulf was glancing at me, inspecting me from head to toe.

"...Would it be a wild guess to assume you've changed your hairstyle?" I scowled at this and punched him in the shoulder, the cat chuckling in return.

"H-hey! Don't pull a Lethe on me! Well, I've heard what happened from miss kitty in general, so no need to talk about this...heh."

He sniggered at me, and I waved my wooden stick at him, before chucking it at him in anger. He mockingly dodged it, and I grimaced, as it flew past a stunned Elincia.

"Ah! I'm sorry Elincia! Are you okay?" I walked up to her, Ranulf in tow and checked on her.

"N-no I'm fine...miss?" Ranulf sniggered again, and I kicked him in the shins, promptly shutting him up.

"W-well...It's me, Dylan. Shocking isn't it?" The thought registered in her head, and her face changed from slight confusion to a jittery curiosity.

"Oh my...I thought that Lord Greil was teasing me, but it so happens that it was true..." I laughed nervously at her, and it was getting awkward fast. So, I decided to lighten the mood.

"T-this isn't quite bad though Elincia! Look! I'm not half bad...and I've got boobs!" Her face quickly turned a bright shade of red as I put more emphasis on it, and Ranulf was for the last few minutes, already on the floor laughing.

"Hahahaha! Wow Cain, you're a man among men, or rather, a man among women!" He nudged me on the side.

"Here. This is from the King! Twelve thousand gold, a generous sum to be given, if I do say so myself." He held the coin sack towards me, but I turned it back to him.

"I can't accept that money from him. I didn't do anything to earn it." He laughed at me, and tossed the bag to Elincia, who caught it in surprise.

"Well how about accepting it as payment from your employer? I'm sure that's acceptable enough." Elincia held the bag out to me, a sweet smile adorning her face.

"I would like to give this to you then Dylan. You've helped me out so much; this isn't enough for everything you've done in my opinion." Ranulf smirked at this.

"You could always ask for more princess."

"N-no that's not what I meant! I'm just glad you were with me throughout it all..." I took the money from her, and held her hand in mine, and I couldn't help but smile at her innocence

"Thank you Elincia...I promise that I'll protect you no matter what. I also want to see Crimea shining brightly again."

"...Well, if you two are busy, I'll go prepare to leave." I quickly pulled away from the blushing Elincia, letting out a small chuckle, and punched the sniggering Ranulf once more.

"Heh, well at least this trip's going to be one heck of an adventure!" He smirked in return, bumping my held out fist.

"Damn Right!"


End file.
